An ingenious forest-protection proposal has grown out of the ongoing U.N. climate change summit, according to a BBC article: Papua New Guinea officials suggested that developing countries should reap financial rewards in return for prohibiting their industries from razing forests – an idea that is long overdue. Preserving foliage-rich wilderness is a lynchpin of the global-warming solution: Trees create natural carbon sinks that breathe in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and release oxygen.