Just down the street from my house, across the little Takano River bridge, is Takaragaike Park. A short walk across the park is the Kyoto International Conference Hall, where the Kyoto Protocol to slow the pumping of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere was worked out 8 years ago.

Just minutes ago a ceremony to mark the treaty’s implementation today was concluded at KICH, featuring a keynote speech by Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai of Kenya. I applied for a press pass to get pictures of the event, but I was not credentialed, and anyway I am laid up with a nasty cold. Here’s a photo from the Kyoto Shinbun If you can read kana you can run the URL through Rikai.com and mouse over the text for help, but basically her message is that grass roots effort is the key to anything.

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