Not exactly, says British epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson.

For decades, Wilkinson has studied why some societies are healthier than others. He found that what the healthiest societies have in common is not that they have more—more income, more education, or more wealth—but that what they have is more equitably shared.

In fact, it turns out that not only disease, but a whole host of social problems ranging from mental illness to drug use are worse in unequal societies. In his latest book, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, co-written with Kate Pickett, Wilkinson details the pernicious effects that inequality has on societies: eroding trust, increasing anxiety and illness, encouraging excessive consumption.

The good news is that increased equality has the opposite effect: statistics show that communities without large gaps between rich and poor are more resilient and their members live longer, happier lives.

YES! Magazine web editor Brooke Jarvis sat down with Richard Wilkinson to discuss the surprising importance of equality—and the best ways to build it.

To read the interview, click here.

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is an annual event that presents individuals doing extraordinary work in these three areas. I have posted several wonderful videos and the one below featuring multimedia director and performer Natasha Tsako is another standout.

Natasha is a Swiss born artist living in Miami and performing there and around the world. Her appearance at TED last year featured excerpts from her one-woman show, UP WAKE, that integrates sound, computer generated images and a live stage performance. Her performance is amazing and her empowering concluding comments on the video are powerful. I have extracted them so readers can appreciate their depth. Enjoy!

“A bitterwseet, funny, tragic world with existentialist shades of Samuel Beckett and especially Marcel Marceau.     “Octavio Roca, Miami New Times

There is a revolution
It’s a human and technological revolution
It’s motion and emotion
It’s information.

It’s visual, musical, sensorial, conceptual, it’s Universal

It’s beyond words and numbers:
It’s happening.

to create intelligent, meaningful and extra-ordinary work.

It’s now.

Natasha Tsakos
president and founder of ZERO llc
Learn more about Natasha at natashatsakos.com

From: Xinhua News Agency, and Environmental Health News

China’s western Qinghai Province, containing major deposits of the country’s “combustible ice,” will see increased explorations for this emerging clean energy, Provincial Governor Luo Huining said on Saturday.

The plateau province plans to allow large energy companies along with researchers to tap this new source of energy while minimizing environmental threats, Luo said on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature.

“Combustible ice,” or natural gas hydrate, is mainly found in deep seas and atop plateaus. Approximately one cubic meter of “combustible ice” equals 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas.

At a time of energy bottlenecks, the new energy resource has drawn interest from many countries. Additional attention has focused on the “ice” having a low proportion of impurities, resulting in it generating almost no pollutants when burned.

More than 100 countries around the world have found deposits of “combustible ice.” The deposits in Qinghai Province, home to one-quarter of China’s total reserve on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, were discovered in September 2009.

“Combustible ice” reserves on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are estimated to equal at least 35 billion tonnes of oil, which could supply energy to China for 90 years.

Luo said tapping this new energy resource should be given high priority in China’s energy strategy.