Engineers know how and where to build to minimize earthquake damage. But laws don’t always reflect that wisdom. A new study suggests it’s because of a mismatch between risk perceptions and reality.
Flooding in Wainfleet All Saints, Lincolnshire, which received two months rain in two days in June 2019.
Joe Giddens/PA
Electric cars are hot, yet their global market penetration remains less than 0.5% of all vehicles. Research points the way to key questions to ask when building new markets.
More than 40 people died in the May 5, 2019 crash, and reports indicate that passengers taking luggage with them may have slowed the evacuation. So what do we need to do to stop such behaviour?
Backpacking has become an important of the travel market.
Khongtham/Shutterstock
Backpacking is growing and West African countries such as Ghana need to actively attract them.
Many cities have plans in place to adapt to or mitigate the effects of climate change. But are they credible? An ongoing study looks into the question.
David Blackwell/Flickr
In the fight against climate change, cities are now seen as having a major role to play. An ongoing study examines the effectiveness of the adaptation and mitigation plans of 126 coastal cities.
For the few cases that go awry, the main problems are pre-existing medical conditions and escape attempts.
Bottles of Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer in the United Kingdom, relabelled by activists to highlight the World Health Organization’s judgment that its main ingredient is a probable carcinogen.
Global Justice Now
Thousands of people are suing Monsanto, claiming that its Roundup herbicide gave them cancer. A California judge has reduced the first damage award but let the verdict against Monsanto stand.
The Mega Millions stakes have never been higher.
Reuters/Brendan McDermid
Lotteries purportedly generate money to support public education. Jackpots are getting bigger and bigger – but states don’t seem to be spending any more on education.
Riding your bike is by far the healthiest way of getting around.
from shutterstock.com
What’s your risk of dying if you cycle to work, versus the health benefits? What about walking, or driving, or catching a train? Here are the risks and benefits.
Businesses in Humble, Texas, part of metropolitan Houston, surrounded by floodwater from Hurricane Harvey, August 29, 2017.
AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File
Hurricane Harvey swamped much of Houston in 2017, causing more damage than all other US hurricanes except Katrina. But now the city is authorizing construction in zones at high risk for flooding.
Frédéric Keck, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
A scientific question fascinates experts : under which conditions can bird flu virus be transmitted to humans by aerial particles, and what will be the consequences for those who aren’t immune?
Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush’s former secretary of defense during the war in Iraq.
DR
The question is no longer how to repel all threats. Instead, it’s how can we organise ourselves as a society to remain ourselves in the face of these multiple threats.
Is the impact of refugees in the host country’s economy positive or negative? The real question is really quite different: can the economy really do without refugees?
A photo taken on June 1, 2016, on the banks of the Seine.
Leighton W. Kille/The Conversation
Although it is unlikely to find a scenario similar to that of the major flood of 1910, France’s national flood forecasting network is closely monitoring the level of the Seine.
A protest in Toulouse in January 2016 against the state of emergency in France.
Gyrostat/Wikimedia
Weakening the institutional as well as the symbolic functioning of the rule of law has the consequence of introducing new “risks”, and thus creating more insecurity.