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A hush falls over the hall. A young Pacific Island mother stepped on the podium, her traditional dress out of place against the rest of the suits. She puts her daughter to bed, closing her eyes and recites a poem to her that pleads with her land. At that point, policy disappears, and emotion comes up. Such scenes are now characteristic of COPs, where in addition to negotiations, art and storytelling make climate debate human through light installations, poetry, dance and prot

Firelight Before the Conference   On a windless evening by a tidal creek, an older woman pinched out the lamp and let the moon light the circle. Children leaned in; a fisherman set down a net; a midwife warmed her hands. She began with the story her grandmother told of the river that is an elder, of bread shared with a traveler, of a chief who lost his seat because power is borrowed from the people and the earth. Every face around the circle knew the endings before she spoke