Before the Climate Conference, a Weather Report

President Obama and other world leaders will gather in Copenhagen next week to discuss climate change. Though this is a global issue, it’s also a profoundly local one. For this reason, the Op-Ed editors asked writers from four different continents to report on the climate changes they’ve experienced close to home. Here are their dispatches.

1.- Denmark in the Wind. By Hanne-Vibeke Holst, a novelist.
In Copenhagen, the once moderate-to-fresh winds are now more often storms.

2.- South Africa's Fire Kingdom. By Zakes Mda, a playwright.
In Cape Town, a rise in unpredictable and more ferocious fires are destroying the ecosystem.

3.- The Penguins of Brazil. By Edgard Telles Ribeiro, the author of Would Have Loved Him if I Had Not Killed Him.
In Rio de Janeiro, shifiting ocean currents and water temperatures have changed bird migration patterns.

4.- In Japan, Concerns Blossom. By Yoko Tawada, the author of The Naked Eye and Facing the Bridge.
In Tokyo, it no longer snows in winter.