patpatpat, 10. Januar 2003 um 14:06:32 MEZ

It is the car, stupid!

Professor Ian Roberts will assert in an evening seminar that urban planners in the US have created a nation pathologically and economically addicted to a dwindling supply of artificially cheap oil, and that their actions have not only brought the world to the brink of war but generated a social and public health crisis as well. He will warn that immediate steps are needed to promote walking and cycling, and to bolster public transport, if we are to avoid a succession of future gasoline wars along the lines of that seen in Kuwait over a decade ago. Motor vehicles cause 3,000 deaths and 30,000 serious injuries on the world's roads every day, explains Professor Roberts. By 2020, road traffic crashes will have moved from ninth to third place in the world ranking of the burden of disease and will be second place in developing countries. Professor Roberts' seminar, entitled 'War in Iraq: the second gasoline war and how to prevent the third' will be held at 5pm Monday 13 January in the Goldsmith's Lecture Theatre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1.