UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged citizens around the world to join WWF's Earth Hour to demand action on climate change.

In a video-taped address, the Secretary-General said that Earth Hour — which takes place on Saturday 28th March — promises to be "the largest demonstration of public concern about climate change ever attempted."

"Earth Hour is a way for the citizens of the world to send a clear message. They want action on climate change." said Secretary-General Ban.

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After 2,000 years of practice, Buddhist monks know that one secret to happiness is simply to put your mind to it.

What is happiness, and how can we achieve it?

Happiness can't be reduced to a few agreeable sensations. Rather, it is a way of being and of experiencing the world — a profound fulfillment that suffuses every moment and endures despite inevitable setbacks.

The paths we take in search of happiness often lead us to frustration and suffering instead. We try to create outer conditions that we believe will make us happy. But it is the mind itself that translates outer conditions into happiness or suffering. This is why we can be deeply unhappy even though we "have it all" — wealth, power, health, a good family, etc. — and, conversely, we can remain strong and serene in the face of hardship.
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The collapse of an ice sheet in West Antarctica would not only threaten coastal areas of North America and nations in the southern Indian Ocean, but would also cause a shift in the earth's rotation axis, researchers report in Science.

If the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) collapses and melts, as some scientists feel is likely due to global warming, the earth's rotation would shift an approximate 500 meters from its current position. Rather than cause a uniform rise in sea level, this would result in a 30 percent greater increase in certain areas — about 21 feet for Washington, D.C., for example, compared with the uniform 16 to 17 feet already predicted. The researchers say the melting would change the balance of the globe in much the same way that tsunamis move huge amounts of water from one area to another [ABC News].
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