1. Now here’s a question that’s been keeping millions up at night! Which is greener: Going into the refrigerator for a bottle of cold water or using the water dispenser on the fridge door? (Do those still exist?) Treehugger’s Ask Pablo says…um, why are you refrigerating your water?
2. What’s a ton of emitted carbon actually worth? The Institute for Policy Integrity consulted 144 leading economists and got…wildly disparate estimates from the pointyheads. (But 98% of them favored putting a price on the stuff to incentivize energy efficiency and innovation. Hat tip: CleanTechnica.)
3. How can you change a climate change denier’s mind? “The Psychology of Climate Change Communication,” a new report from Columbia University researchers, gives tips for advocates — don’t pile on the anxiety, and be honest about uncertainties. (The report also says people wonder why we can’t just reopen the ozone hole to release the build-up of greenhouse gases. Hat tip: Bright Green Blog.)
4. How many species have been listed as endangered by the Obama administration? Would you believe just one? That’s a much slower rate than that under President George W. Bush, reports Jeremy Hance at Mongabay.
5. 31 days to Copenhagen…what will happen? Today, the BBC’s Richard Black takes his best guess…and says get ready for some late night pizza deliveries and last-second deals. (There is good pizza in Copenhagen, isn’t there?)

1. New data suggest that wetlands could store six times more carbon per acre than forests, leading some scientists and companies to consider wetlands restoration as the next shining hope for carbon offsets.
2. How much does it cost to save an endangered species? A lot. A new report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the United States spent $1.5 billion on efforts to protect endangered species in 2007. The most expensive species that year? Chinook salmon.
3. Marijuana growers in California get blamed for a lot of nefarious activities, and a new one has just been added to the list: worsening the state’s drought. Officials in Mendocino County say illicit pot growers have a huge impact on water resources.
4. Do you ever use your phonebook? Has the thought crossed your mind that phonebooks are a colossal waste of paper? A new campaign is trying to put a stop to the waste by making phone books optional.
5. Using an infrared camera, Terry Gosney spots gas leaks that can’t be seen with the naked eye – thereby helping companies save energy and money and reduce climate change impacts.

Good morning, Cool Green News addicts! We know you missed us yesterday, but we’re back with some hot links to get your day started. Dams are coming down, a literary classic offers lessons in the climate change debate and a note of hope emerges around the U.S. climate change bill currently stalled in the Senate. Read on!

1. Some call it a stunt, others a protest — the Maldives government will be holding its next session of Parliament underwater to call attention to the watery future the country faces if sea level rise due to climate change isn’t slowed. (See the Associated Press video above.)
2. The destruction of a massive and long-standing dam in Oregon is a sign that the United States’ era of dam building is giving way to a new era of dam breaching, reports the Los Angeles Times.
3. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Indonesia and the United States aren’t quite London and Paris circa the French Revolution, but they do present some interesting parallels in the global climate change debate – read The Nature Conservancy’s piece comparing the two countries in The Jakarta Post.
4. A new study finds that community-owned forests provide better benefits in terms of carbon storage and human well-being than government-owned forests. The authors argue that this information could help countries design the most effective forest carbon programs. (Hat-tip: Conservation Magazine.)
5. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator John Kerry published a joint op-ed in the New York Times this weekend with the optimistic title “Yes We Can (Pass Climate Change Legislation),”  giving many reason to hope that passage of a bill is still possible.

“The forest is our supermarket,” says Bang Liling, the deputy chief of Long Oking village inside the Berau district of Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo.

It tells you something that that’s a common phrase heard in this part of the world, which I visited earlier this fall.

“We get all of our medicine from the forest,” adds Lung Bu, village leader of Long Oking, a nearby village. “The roofs of our buildings, our huts on the field, they all came form the forest. So our lives depend on the forest.”

Think how often you go to the supermarket, not just for food but for other supplies like medicines and toiletries. Then imagine what happens when the supermarket is gone.

The protection of forests in Indonesia is clearly important to local people who depend on the forest for their resources and livelihoods. But it turns out that these forests are also important to everyone on the planet. Forests play a crucial role in fighting climate change, and Indonesia’s forests are disappearing faster than any others’ on Earth.

Forests are remarkably efficient at taking greenhouses gases out of the atmosphere. When forests are cleared, we not only lose the potential for them to pull more gases out of the atmosphere, but all the gases that were being held inside them are released and added to the global emissions tally. Deforestation alone accounts for 17 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s why The Nature Conservancy is working with local villagers and logging companies in Indonesia to reduce the impacts of conventional logging practices. Simple changes can yield more intact forests, cleaner water, healthier and happier local villagers, and more trees sequestering carbon and fighting climate change.

When I was in Berau recently with the Conservancy’s reduced-impact logging (RIL) manager, Bambang Wayhudi, it struck me that this approach to logging creates a win-win-win situation — one that keeps much-needed jobs for loggers, protects forest resources for local communities and reduces the emissions caused by conventional logging.

RIL is just one of multiple carbon emission reduction strategies that are part of an approach called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). This initiative was just announced by the Government of Indonesia for the district of Berau at the UN climate change talks in Bangkok.   

Says Agus Purnomo, head of delegation of Indonesia and head of the Secretariat of the National Council on Climate Change:

“Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation is possible, and doable. By linking our district level initiative in Berau, which is just one of the sub-national processes in our national climate change program, to the international discussions we are showing how to deliver REDD implementation.”

At the global climate change negotiations coming up in Copenhagen this December, many groups—including the Conservancy—will join with several governments to send a clear message: the protection of forests is a vital part of combating climate change.

It is Bambang’s hope and the Conservancy’s hope that the local communities continue to manage their own forests with their local knowledge for their supermarket…and ultimately for all of us.

(Image: Bambang Wayhudi. Source: Bridget Besaw.)

Mark Tercek is president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy.

Over the last few months, I have been participating in a bipartisan commission — The Commission on Climate and Tropical Forests — that is focused on the connections between climate policy here in the United States and protecting tropical forests. The commission comprises some of the country’s leading government, business, conservation, science and national security experts, and is co-chaired by former Senator Lincoln Chafee and John Podesta, the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress and former White House chief of staff.

Today, the commission unveiled our report highlighting a cornerstone of the policy debate: We cannot win the battle against climate change without protecting our forests.

Destruction of the world’s forests each year produces 17 percent of all carbon emissions released into the atmosphere. Each year, roughly 50,000 square miles of forest — an area larger than the state of Pennsylvania — disappear.

Today’s report calls on Congress to pass legislation that will help cut emissions from tropical deforestation in half within a decade and achieve zero net emissions from the forest sector by 2030.

While this sounds like an ambitious goal — and it is — forest protection requires no technological breakthroughs and is one of the most cost-effective strategies we have to address climate change.

Currently, cash-poor but forest-rich nations can earn more money by destroying their forests than by conserving them. But the United States can lead in the global climate battle by providing the incentives and support developing countries need to protect their forest resources and lower emissions.

The report is particularly timely now, because the Senate is considering a climate change bill that offers a significant opportunity to implement a number of these recommendations. And by offering to partner with developing countries to reduce emissions from forest destruction, the United States could help other countries undertake more ambitious efforts to reduce emissions as the countries of the world head into climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

The commission calls for the United States to mobilize $14 billion each year by 2020 to protect the world’s forests, largely from private funds. This mobilization could be accomplished by enacting comprehensive climate policy legislation that caps and steadily reduces U.S. carbon emissions and provides incentives for U.S. companies to invest in forest conservation. In this way, such a program would create a win-win opportunity for businesses, consumers, forests and the people who inhabit them.

In the global effort to contain climate change, it is important to take steps to reduce all major sources of carbon emissions. Yet a ton of carbon emissions reduced through forest protection is just as important for our atmosphere as a ton of carbon reduced from a tailpipe or a smokestack.

The commission also recommends that the United States commit to early and sustained public investments — starting with $1 billion by 2012, and increasing to $5 billion annually by 2020 — to unlock these cost savings and begin to reduce deforestation in nations that cannot initially attract sufficient private capital. A well-designed cap-and-trade program, supplemented by bold commitments through the appropriations process, would provide an effective mechanism for providing this sustained public financing. (See a recent speech I gave at Yale University to learn more.)

At the Conservancy, we have seen first-hand how forests can be a powerful tool against climate change. For more than 10 years, the Conservancy has worked with some of the country’s leading businesses to launch programs that protect threatened forests, lower emissions, benefit local communities and fight climate change.

Our Noel Kempff project in Bolivia is the world’s first — and only — forest carbon project to have its emissions reductions verified by a third party. By bringing together AEP, PacifiCorp, BP, the Bolivian government and local communities, the project is protecting 1.5 million acres of tropical forest and will prevent the release of 5.8 million tons of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

In Indonesia, The Nature Conservancy is currently working with government agencies, private businesses, local communities and other partners to launch a massive forest carbon program that will span the entire governmental district of Berau – equal to the size of the country of Belize.

And in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Para, which account for 70 percent of Brazil’s deforestation, we are moving forward with two large-scale reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) pilot projects that have the potential to halt millions of acres of deforestation and reduce emissions of millions of tons of carbon dioxide. These programs will demonstrate to U.S. and international climate change policymakers how REDD can work in practice.

Along with reducing emissions, stopping deforestation protects biodiversity as well as the food, water and economic resources communities rely upon for survival.

Halting the destruction of the world’s forests is within our grasp. The United States can and should lead in this effort, and the report released today shows the path forward.

(Image: Arcoiris waterfall at Noel Kempff Mercado National Park in Bolivia, South America. Credit: Hermes Justiniano.)

Are practical solutions to climate change within reach? Based on what I saw at the Governors’ Global Climate Summit, yes we can.

The Governors’ Global Climate Summit wrapped up last Friday with governors and other subnational leaders from around the world signing a declaration to work together toward effective climate solutions — including creation of climate policies, clean technologies, green jobs, forest conservation programs and adaptation activities.

They hope that their commitment, leadership, and initiative will motivate national leaders to succeed in reaching a new climate change agreement in Copenhagen. But can we be more than just hopeful? Here are some of the details of what came out of the summit — and why I think they demonstrate a solid basis for action on the international level:

Ahead of the closing ceremonies, forests featured prominently in two important events. Late Thursday night, governors from eleven states in Brazil, Indonesia and the United States signed a letter to their heads of state calling for a task force to develop effective policy on reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) that could be included in the international climate treaty to be negotiated in Copenhagen. Together, Brazil and Indonesia represent about one-half of the world’s tropical forests.

On Friday, governors from Wisconsin, the Indonesian state of Aceh and the Brazilian states of Para, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Acre spoke directly to the opportunities they see in making forest protection, restoration and management a win-win solution for stopping climate change and creating more sustainable economies for their people.

Leaders from the Brazilian rubber tappers’ union, private timber and investment companies, and conservation organizations also spoke about the opportunities for launching partnerships to build capacity and contribute the funding needed to protect forests, support communities and fight climate change.

At least 17 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions come from forest loss around the world — more than from all the Earth’s automobiles, trucks, trains, planes and ships combined. Halting and eventually reversing deforestation trends promises to be one of the most cost-effective and immediate solutions to stopping climate change.

The world’s attention now turns to Copenhagen where international leaders will meet in December to hammer out a new global climate agreement. The negotiators still have a lot of work to do before they can reach an agreement. The stakes are high: Failing to act on climate change risks catastrophic impacts on people, economies, and the natural world.

But the Governors’ Global Climate Summit in California last week demonstrated that practical solutions are in reach, and that subnational leaders are ready to lead the way with real action to reduce emissions and to help those communities most vulnerable to climate change.

(Image: A log yard fills a large field near the village of Long Gi, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Credit: Mark Godfrey/TNC.)

Seaweed gas that kills horses. Oil company employees rallying against climate change legislation. Wind turbines and their annoying hum. It’s not all bad news in Cool Green Morning this morning — it just looks like it (but at least we’ll always have Scotland):

1. Want another reason to go green with your energy? The renewable energy industry has far fewer workplace deaths than traditional extractive energy jobs like mining or drilling, says a new JAMA study. (Hat tip: 60-Second Science.)
2. Wee Willie of “The Simpsons” would be proud: The depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland might be the new “grave” for carbon dioxide storage, says The Great Beyond.
3. About 3,000 oil company employees rallied yesterday in Houston against the climate change bill, reports Environmental Capital — part of a 19-state campaign funded by the American Petroleum Institute. (Critics have labeled the rallies an “Astroturf” — as opposed to real grassroots — campaign.)
4. Why not put wind turbines on every rooftop? It’s not that simple, reports Building Green. (For one thing, they emit really annoying vibrations and a hum. Hat tip: The Vine.)
5. Noxious gas from seaweed on the beaches in northern France has killed a horse and ruined vacations there, reports EcoWorldly — and agricultural runoff is being blamed for the seaweed explosion.

(Image: Seaweed off the coast of Brittany. Credit: innacoz through a Creative Commons license.)

Seen the marvelous spatuletail hummingbird? You must check him out — see video above — and read on to find out why this unusual little guy is endangered in Peru. It’s all the Cool Green News you need this morning.

1. A new report from the American Bird Conservancy and a South American conservation group highlights the plight of the endangered marvelous spatuletail hummingbird (see video above) and other Peruvian wildlife losing their habitat. (Hat-tip: The Daily Green.)
2. Of all people to oppose cap-and-trade… the Wall Street Journal reports that the founding geniuses behind the concept are skeptical about its ability to combat global warming. (Hat-tip: Environmental Capital.)
3. If you’ve been planning a trip to Montreal just to check out their cool new bike-sharing system, you might be able to find one a little closer now: the Bixi bike share system will next be implemented in Boston and London.
4. India is using up its groundwater supply — fast — says a new report. The study shows an average loss of 4 centimeters a year in northern Indian states, equivalent over 6 years time to triple the amount of water in Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States.
5. Are town-hall protests like the ones making headlines about health care next for climate change? Could be, since the American Petroleum Institute and other opponents to climate legislation are funding similar rallies across the United States. The Vine analyzes some of the numbers fueling the opposition.

First, we hear Steven Chu has a Facebook page. Now he’s appearing on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. What next? Read on for all the latest Cool Green News on this fine Cool Green Morning.

1. Will farmers do better financially under the proposed Waxman-Markey climate bill? Environmental Capital says carbon offsets are a gold mine for farmers.
2. Baseball stadiums in the United States and Japan are going green, from purchasing wind energy to getting LEED certification.
3. Steven Chu’s appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart proves he’s not a zombie, says Red Green and Blue. (Watch the video above and judge for yourself.)
4. NOAA released a new report this week warning that Caribbean reefs face a high risk of coral bleaching this summer, due in part to warmer ocean temperatures.
5. Mongabay is hopeful that we can actually save rainforests through a new climate change mitigation program that would send funding to protect rainforests in developing countries.

1. Green jobs skeptic Marc Gunther thinks a program modeled after Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps — which helped build state and national parks in the 1930s — could be the best way to create jobs and benefit people and nature.
2. Grist reviews the NRDC’s Smarter Cities project, which ranks the most sustainable U.S. cities based on a number of green categories including air quality, public transportation and recylcing. Top city on the list? Seattle.
3. Ever wonder what happens to your trash after you put it in the bin? A new study by MIT called “Trash Track” uses electronic tags attached to trash items in order to find out just what happens from disposal to dump.
4. At this point, his words may fall on deaf ears, but Red Green & Blue’s Timothy Hurst makes an argument for carbon tax over cap-and-trade, laying out six advantages of the straight tax.
5. Shark attacks are many people’s worst nightmare (mine included). So you gotta give a hand to the nine survivors of shark attacks who last week lobbied the Senate to enact the Shark Conservation Act of 2009, which would support shark conservation world-wide and enforce efforts to reduce finning.