To my dear visitors and commenters

Hi, everybody! I've noticed with lots of joy and happiness, that thousands of comments have been written in my posts. It's wonderful that so may people around the world appreciate my work. Therefore, I want to thank you for that and ,at the same time I want to ask you to be this blog's followers. It's fast and easy! Make it be even more visited and spread all over the world! I'm a woman, a teacher of English in Portugal, and I've been away for quite a long time because of my father's health. Unfortunately he died from Covid19 a few months ago. Now I felt it was time to restart my activity in this and other blogs I owe. I've recently created a new one in a partnership with a street photographer, Mr. Daniel Antunes. He's fabulous! https://pandpbydandd.blogspot.com I'd like you to visit it and, who knows, become our followers. The poems, chronicles and thoughts are all mine. Thank you so much! Kisses :-)

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Saturday, December 20, 2014

Millions of butterflies arrive in Mexican forest

Mexico has welcomed some guests just in time for Christmas - millions of monarch butterflies.


They've touched down in the Oyamel Fir forest in Mexico as part of their yearly migration from parts of the US and Canada.
The butterflies have been taking up lots of space, but the numbers making the trip has fallen in recent years.
Scientists from Mexico, the US and Canada have all been working to try and find ways to help, like introducing organic fertiliser in the forest.


From CBBC newsround

Prince William makes speech about illegal poaching



The Duke of Cambridge has made a speech in America, warning about the effect illegal poaching is having on elephants and rhinos.


Continents like Africa and Asia used to be home to hundreds of thousands of rhinos and elephants.
But today, three out of five rhino species are critically endangered, and in Africa last year there were more elephants killed by poachers than were born.

Poaching on the rise

If that continues, experts are warning that they could become extinct within 20 years.
Despite tough hunting laws, poaching is on the rise as horns and tusks can sell for high prices on the illegal wildlife market.
Poachers kill around 35,000 elephants and 1,000 rhinos every year.
Prince William hopes these talks will help to raise awareness around the world about how bad the situation is.
From CBBC newsround

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Countries reach climate change agreement

Countries from all over the world have reached an agreement on how to limit the effects of climate change in the future.

Smoke from factory in Ahmadabad, India, Dec 2014

Leaders from 195 countries have been meeting in Peru, in South America, for two weeks.
They were trying to agree on plans and targets that each country would have to meet to reduce the amount of harmful gases it produces, and the amount energy it uses.
There were disagreements between richer and poorer countries at the summit about whether all nations should have the same targets.
Negotiators have now come up with a plan for countries to make their own pledges, which will be submitted at another conference next year.
Environmental groups have criticised the deal saying it weakens international climate rules.
United Nations members have reached an agreement on how countries should tackle climate change.
Delegates have approved a framework for setting national pledges to be submitted to a summit next year.
Differences over the draft text caused the talks in Lima, Peru, to overrun by two days.
Environmental groups have criticised the deal as a weak and ineffectual compromise, saying it weakens international climate rules.
The talks proved difficult because of divisions between rich and poor countries over how to spread the burden of pledges to cut carbon emissions.
'Not perfect'
The BBC's Matt McGrath in Lima says none of the 194 countries attending the talks walked away with everything they wanted, but everybody got something.
There was a great sense of relief among delegates when the announcement came in the early hours of Sunday morning, he adds, following 48 hours of talks without a break.
Peru's environment minister, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who chaired the summit, told reporters: "As a text it's not perfect, but it includes the positions of the parties."



The agreement was adopted hours after a previous draft was rejected by developing countries, who accused rich nations of shirking their responsibilities to fight global warming and pay for its impacts.
The final draft is said to have alleviated those concerns with by saying countries have "common but differentiated responsibilities".
The agreed document calls for:
  • An "ambitious agreement" in 2015 that reflects "differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities" of each nation
  • Developed countries to provide financial support to "vulnerable" developing nations
  • National pledges to be submitted by the first quarter of 2015 by those states "ready to do so"
  • Countries to set targets that go beyond their "current undertaking"
  • The UN climate change body to report back on the national pledges in November 2015
Environmental groups were scathing in their response to the document, saying the proposals were nowhere need drastic enough.
Sam Smith, chief of climate policy for the environmental group WWF, said: "The text went from weak to weaker to weakest and it's very weak indeed."
Jagoda Munic, chairperson of Friends of the Earth International, said fears the talks would fail to deliver "a fair and ambitious outcome" had been proven "tragically accurate".



The talks followed last month's agreement on emissions targets between the US and China, but hopes it would encourage wider global agreement faded once talks began in Lima on 1 December.
On Saturday, US climate envoy Todd Stern had warned that the deadlock in the negotiations threatened the chances of a new global deal next year, saying it would be seen as "a major breakdown".

From CBBC newswround and BBC news

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