Friday, January 29, 2010

New Scientist report

Earthquakes caused by global warming


FAR from being the benign figure of mythology, Mother Earth is short-tempered and volatile. So sensitive in fact, that even slight changes in weather and climate can rip the planet's crust apart, unleashing the furious might of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides.New Scientist

World Social Forum: call for free public transport

"There would be advantages to free public transport in huge cities.."

Economist & professor, Ladislau Dowbor from the Catholic University of Sao Paulo, addressed the 2010 World Social Forum in Brazil this week, with a presentation entitled 'Another kind of economics is possible.'

Among the raft of democratic reforms he proposed, he told the conference that "..there would be advantages ... to free public transport in huge cities like Sao Paulo, whose residents spend an average of two hours and 43 minutes a day in traffic, at terrible cost to everyone in terms of quality of life and pollution."

[The World Social Forum was set up 10 years ago as a counter to the World Economic Forum.]