The country is creating a model using its natural resources. March 17, 2014 By Scott Johnson Scott Johnson has headed Newsweek’s Mexico and Baghdad bureaus, and is the author of "The Wolf and the Watchman: A Father, A Son and the CIA." This article appears in full on www.takepart.com Standing on the beach at Playa Guiones, on Costa Rica’s northwest Guanacaste coastline, and looking eastward, the only thing one sees is an unbroken line of forest. There are no high-rises, no big hotels, no smog-filled taxi corridors catering to drunken tourists. Instead the trees are filled with monkeys and birds with brightly colored plumes. The only sounds are the crashing of the ocean’s waves and the thrum of forest creatures. Not all of Costa Rica looks like this, but a lot of it does. According to last year’s report from the World Energy Council on global environmental sustainability, Costa Rica nabbed second place, after Switzerland, and was far ahead of Central American neighbo…