Tom Friedman's column yesterday was filed from Costa Rica, perhaps the globe's best example of how to prosper without exploiting native resources.

You're no doubt familiar with Costa Rica's many wonders, both natural and governmental. In a country roughly the size of West Virginia, it has rainforest, an active volcano, and both Caribbean and Pacific shores. It has decades of stable, democratic leadership, a literacy rate above 90 percent, and protects more than a quarter of its land for conservation.

I've been aware, and admiring, of that, for years, and I got to experience the nation when Georgie and I honeymooned there five years ago. But Friedman's column gave me a couple of new points to add to my admiration:

* In 1985, Costa Rica got half its power from hydro and half from oil. Today, it gets more than 95 percent from renewable sources. It even discovered its own oil reserves 5 years ago, but banned drilling. Banned! Oil drilling!

And there's this:

To pay for these environmental services, in 1997 Costa Rica imposed a tax on carbon emissions — 3.5 percent of the market value of fossil fuels — which goes into a national forest fund to pay indigenous communities for protecting the forests around them. And the country imposed a water tax whereby major water users — hydro-electric dams, farmers and drinking water providers — had to pay villagers upstream to keep their rivers pristine. “We now have 7,000 beneficiaries of water and carbon taxes,” said Rodríguez. “It has become a major source of income for poor people. It has also enabled Costa Rica to actually reverse deforestation. We now have twice the amount of forest as 20 years ago.”

Are conditions different in Costa Rica than here? Yes. Would our course of action be different from Costa Rica's? Yes. But is there a reason we can't learn from the efforts of such a clearly successful example? No.

Link to Friedman's column. Thanks to my studious friend, Ron, for pointing me toward the column.