Not once have I stood motionless and breathless 

and greenest lanes and heard a song rise clear. 

I never feasted on that forest music 

which one small bird intended me to hear. 

 

That bird was mine by a most sacred kinship 

yet met we not in time and traffic rush. 

Hence I have only documents of longing 

to prove me sister to the hermit thrush.

 

Yet, past all loss, heaven leans down to argue:

ah, in love’s denser wood and far more fair

sings the more hidden soul its purer music.

Enter, it says, oh, go and listen there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For several decades now, representatives of more than 190 countries have met periodically to address the issue of climate change. The 1992 Rio de Janeiro Conference led to the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a treaty that took effect when the necessary ratification on the part of the signatories concluded in 1994. These States meet annually in the Conference of the Parties (COP), the highest decision-making body. Some of these Conferences were failures, like that of Copenhagen (2009), while others made it possible to take important steps forward, like COP3 in Kyoto (1997). Its significant Protocol set the goal of reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions by 5% with respect to 1990. The deadline was the year 2012, but this, clearly, was not achieved.

 

All parties also committed themselves to implementing programmes of adaptation in order to reduce the effects of climate change now taking place. Provisions were also made for aid to cover the costs of the measures in developing countries. The Protocol actually took effect in 2005. (LD 44-45)
 

 

Holy, Holy! – In the hush

Hearken to the hermit-thrush;

All the air

Is in prayer.   —  John Vance Cheney