The Chairman
I was interested when I read Mr Martin’s comments about the use of words. He said ‘unsafe conditions lead to hazards and risk of failure’ and Mr Jackson referred to earthquakes. Like most of you, I have been preoccupied with the disasters that have occurred in the world recently, particularly in Armenia, and I was interested to note that Dr. Bilham of the University of Colorado, who has been studying these matters, has reported that by the turn of the century there will be 100 cities in the world, which will have total populations of 290M. This is because of people migrating to the cities where perhaps there is enmployment for them. About 80% of those 290M people will reside in the developing world, and all those cities will be in areas where there is potential for major seismic activity.