Green Daily

Have you always dreamed of costarring in a film or video with an animated partner, like Paula Abdul and that dancing cat in "Opposites Attract"? And do you have a message for the world about saving the rainforest? If so, The Prince's Rainforest can help you achieve both of these dreams.

HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales, created The Prince's Rainforest Project to simply raise awareness of the connection between deforestation and climate change. The campaign has a frog mascot who appeared in a video with Prince Charles, as well as Princes William and Harry, Daniel Craig, Pele, Harrison Ford, and perhaps inevitably, Robin Williams.

One of the coolest things about the campaign is that you can make your own video, with the frog, urging world leaders to take bold action to address climate change at Copenhagen. It's hard to imagine that world leaders haven't heard this message yet, with all of the activism going on practically every day, but if anything will catch the attention of the last few resisters, I'm betting the frog is it.

Back in the 70s, I remember nuclear energy being discussed in the same breath as geothermal and solar power. But then the partial core meltdown happened at Three Mile Island in 1979, giving the American public a huge scare about the safety of nuclear reactors.

It didn't help matters when the film "Silkwood", starring Meryl Streep, came out in 1983, showing how workers who were exposed to plutonium had to be literally scrubbed raw -- those decontamination showers are burned into the brains of a generation!

But the climate crisis has created the urgent need for a power source that doesn't produce CO2. There are already several nuclear power-plants online in the U.S. In 31 states there are 104 reactors, which provide about 20% of our energy -- and 70% of our emission-free energy.

Tomorrow is the big day! International Day of Climate Action Day, when activists around the world are staging major protests to send a message to world leaders about climate change.

What do we want? Less CO2! When do want it? ASAP, preferably before the glaciers melt, the rain forests burn down and civilization as we know it collapses!

Greenpeace and 350.org are helping to organize the protests, demonstrations and "actions," which will probably involve at least two out of the following list of protest activities:

No, no, I'm not talking about some crazy global warming version of yellow snow. I mean it's time to start thinking about eco-friendly ways to enjoy outdoor winter activities!

This is on my mind for a couple of reasons: a big freak storm in San Francisco this week reportedly dropped a foot of snow on the Sierras, which was thrilling for all of my shredding-starved friends. Then I got my favorite eco-newsletter, Smart 2 Be Green, which was all about green winter vacations and Eco-Snowboarding. Finally, someone named Jesse Huffman left very a detailed comment on my surfing post this week, telling us about Protect Our Winters, a non-profit group dedicated toward collective action by the "winter sports community" to reverse climate change.

It was like a sign from the pagan gods of snow and ice saying, "Do a post about Eco-friendly winter stuff!" Who am I to refuse a pagan god?

So, scientists (and politicians) have been studying climate change for decades now and what do we actually know about it, (other than the planet's ice caps seem to be doomed)? What is the current status of our planet's current status? And what can we expect in the near future?

Ask climate scientists what the effects of climate change will amount to in the next couple of decades and you'll likely get a variety of predictions ranging from a temporary cool down to the record smashing heat waves. So, what gives? Why does it feel like these predictions are about as reliable as your local TV weatherman's?

I'm no scientist -- that's for sure -- and that's exactly why I want short simple answers to the most basic questions at the root of climate change.

Today is "Blog Action Day", an annual event held every October 15th, where blogs around the world all talk about the same topic. This year the topic is Climate Change, and can I just say, I'm so excited to see everyone writing about this!

Sometimes I feel like I'm harping on this topic again and again and again, but hey, it's real, important and relevant to every single one of us. From the way the weather is changing around the world, to the causes of these changes, to the things you can do right now to reduce your carbon footprint and slow down the changes, all of us need to have a voice in the climate change discussion.

Since I've already written a lot of posts on the topic, today I'd like to go back and share my 10 favorite posts I've written on climate change:

Creative climate activist coalition 350.org has issued an invitation to everyone in the world for October 24th, "The International Day of Climate Action".

On that day they plan to conduct the "most widespread day of environmental action in the planet's history" with rallies, banners on the Easter Island statues, underwater demonstrations, bike rides -- you name it, somewhere in the world someone is probably doing it on October 24th to raise awareness that we must act urgently to address the climate crisis.

The message of 350.org is that we must find ways to get the CO2 in the atmosphere down to 350 parts per million. We're hovering around 390 ppm, and scientists -- including the top NASA climate scientist James Hansen -- say that we have very little time to reduce this number.

The UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) is less than three months away. This week in New York City, government and business leaders from around the world are gathering for meetings and events to demonstrate their support for strong action on climate change at COP15: Climate Week NY°C.

2008 Sexiest Man Alive and Global Ambassador for humanitarian organization World Vision Hugh Jackman will be in attendance to kick off Climate Week NY°C and "speak on behalf of the billion people in developing countries who will be the hardest hit by changing weather patterns, by the droughts and floods that destroy their crops and threaten their food security."

I think seeing Hugh Jackman is reason enough to show up, but for the more strictly climate-issue-minded, there will be a dizzying array of NY°C events from which to choose, including:

Last week I encouraged you to go see "No Impact Man", the documentary about environmentalist Colin Beavan's efforts, with his family, to live for a year impact-free, in New York City. In the film and companion book, "No Impact Man," Colin shares the story of the experiment that he, his wife Michelle and their two-year-old daughter, Isabella, conducted over the course of a year.

They reduced their trash to zero, ate only food grown within 250 miles of their home, (which meant giving up coffee -- eek!), and stopped using electricity, which meant dealing with nine flights of stairs to get in or out of their 9th floor apartment every day (double eek!). Their story is funny, and thought-provoking, and manages to make the idea of giving up toilet paper and electricity, in the middle of New York City, see accessible -- even possible.

I had a chance to meet Colin on the press tour for "No Impact Man," along with Beth Terry from Fake Plastic Fish. We got to ask some follow up questions about the No Impact Man experiment, plus get Colin's first-hand advice on living impact-free.

You've probably seen references to the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Conference that is being held this December in Denmark. The goal of the gathering, which will include (almost literally) every country in the world, is to create a new global protocol to address climate change, and that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

I have to admit that news about this conference had become a sort of "cap/emissions/2 degrees warmer and we're all dead!" white noise to me. Climate change is another one of those topics that can be so overwhelmingly scary and negative that, like most people, after a while I tune it out.

An interview with UN climate chief Yvo de Boer simplified the goals of the conference for me, and made it seem more practical and less dire. It turns out they just have to answer four questions

Rumbling trucks may be cock-blocking city frogs! In ponds across Australia, it seems that frogs can't "attract the ladies" because of loud noise from nearby highways, according to a new report by Melbourne University ecologist Kirsten Parris.

Parris has been studying the lives of frogs in urban Australia since 2000. During this time period, the number of frogs has declined. She hypothesizes that male frogs, who attract a mate by having the most appealing "croak", are having a hard time being heard over the sound of city traffic. The result? Fewer mates, and fewer offspring.

Why do we care? Because animals having sex is fascinating! Have you seen Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno on the Sundance Channel? Besides being artistically clever, totally hilarious and starring the divine Ms. Rossellini, the 60 second clips are riveting because they're about s-e-x.

Taking a page out of the PETA Playbook, relatively radical environmental group Friends of the Earth staged a pants-free protest last Friday. TGIF indeed!

What prompted this display of angry, pasty, activist skin? Nothing less than fraud and forgery by D.C. lobbying firm Bonner & Associates. In an effort to prevent the Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill from passing, an employee of the firm reportedly sent forged letters (arguing against the bill) from two Virgina grassroots organizations, the NAACP and Cresciendo Juntos to Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va).

Bonner & Associates, which is in the pay of the fossil fuel industry, swears that they fired the employee responsible for the fake letters. But seriously, you know they have half a dozen (at least!) amateur Photoshop whizzes on the payroll, probably already working on an forged epistolary novella detailing Ralph Nader's love for dirty coal power and strip mining.

(Photo by Getty Images)

Lately I've seen some nice stories about the Great Barrier Reef, and given the state of the oceans -- acidity, cooling, warming, rising, can boiling be far behind? -- it was a relief to see some fun, light stories. And then science reared it's practical head, and I got all freaked out again.

Starting with the good stuff: Last week the Great Barrier Reef made the short list of 28 landmarks in the running to be named one of the New Seven Wonders of the natural world, in a contest run by Swiss-based New7Wonders.

And remember that guy who won "The Best Job in the World"? He's from the U.K. and was selected to get the job of caretaker for a bunch of tropical islands on the Great Barrier Reef. His main job was to clean a pool, blog, tweet, and get people to come visit Paradise. On the second day of his job he misspelled the name of one of his islands, and the entire (jealous) world wanted to impeach him. Having made more typos than I care to remember, I vote we cut him a break.

This was a pretty exciting week for me. I got a "personalized" email from Alpha Green Al Gore, asking me to support Repower America's efforts to convince Congress to pass aggressive climate legislation. I think he's the greatest! (And I hope/believe he's secretly doing something to get Laura Ling and Euna Lee released from that North Korean labor camp.)

You may remember Al's awesome speech to the Daughters of the American Revolution, when he challenged America to get 100% of our power from clean energy sources within 10 years. Repower America is the organization that grew in response to that challenge, with over 2 million members across the country.

The video above is the latest ad from Repower America, and it's just plain-talking awesomeness. The totally crusty, hardworking, traditional-seeming gentleman who stars in it hits all of the high points -- like how we're "held hostage by foreign oil" and "borrowing money to buy oil from dictators who don't like us" and "burning it in ways that kill God's green earth" -- using language that makes these ideas accessible and palatable to non-bleeding heart liberals. You know, like the majority of the country.

There are many ways to respond to the overwhelming concept of climate change -- often I find a nice organic wine to be quite soothing and medicinal when I start to hyperventilate while calculating the new coastlines that will result from melting polar caps.

The Canary Project has a more productive, or at least more creative response. They use "visual media, events, and artwork that builds public understanding of human-induced climate change and energize commitment to solutions." Using the power of images, they educate and motivate the public, with the goal of addressing climate change while we still have some options. One way they do this is through Green Patriot Posters, founded by Ed Morris, who also founded The Canary Project.

Green Patriot Posters makes modern, updated versions of those "We Can Do It!" style posters from World War II. They want to galvanize people to build a sustainable economy, and to adopt sustainable practices in their everyday lives, and they design cool posters to get the message out.