If 2015 was the year of international cooperation, 2016 seems to have been about withdrawing from external entanglements and re-focusing on national priorities, as the global displacement crisis ground on, terror attacks battered liberal governments, and fighting in the Middle East continued.

But the fundamentals that brought many governments together in recent years to agree on disaster risk reduction, sustainable development, reducing humanitarian emergencies, and combatting climate change remain true. International cooperation and multilateral institutions are still among the best tools for making sense of a more complex and multi-polar world and avoiding the worst results: violent conflict, instability, economic ruin.

Some of our most popular stories of 2016 reflect interest in this complexity: half focus on some aspect of global demographics, from population growth to migration to urbanization; two stories address water security; and one details potential resource competition in the deep sea.

More people, more competition. But in fact that isn’t always the case, or even close, as research into the extensive history of water cooperation will tell you. A more interconnected world also means more reasons to cooperate, as the effects of disrupting the system can ripple far and wide. Take the Paris Agreement. Current commitments by governments are likely not even enough to reach its more conservative goal of limiting warming by 2.0 degrees Celsius. But the expectation is that the logic of cooperation is so sound that this will change over time on its own, without binding terms or penalties. Governments and citizens, even those with the most to lose under the current energy system, will understand that it is in their best interest to avoid the mutual destruction of a natural world turned upside down.

Perhaps 2017 and the years ahead will be a test of this logic, in the climate space and many others. We will see. Enjoy a safe and happy new year from ECSP. Here are the most popular stories of 2016:

1. Changing the Narrative on Fertility Decline in Africa, Eunice Mueni

2. Climate Compensation: How Loss and Damage Fared in the Paris Agreement, Saleemul Huq and Roger-Mark De Souza

3. Fire and Oil: The Collateral Environmental Damage of Airstrikes on ISIS Oil Facilities, Wim Zwijnenburg and Annica Waleij

4. When It Comes to Water Scarcity, Population Growth Tops Climate Change, Robert Engelman

5. Water and Security Hotspots to Watch in 2016 [Infographic], Gracie Cook

6. Striving for Sustainability at 10 Billion: The 2016 World Population Data Sheet, Jeff Jordan and Peter Goldstein

7. Adapting to Climate Change in Cities May Require a Major Rethink, Linda Shi

8. After Paris, What’s the Status of “Environmental Refugees?”, James F. Hollifield and Idean Salehyan

9. Melting Ice Threatens to Expose Former U.S. Nuclear Base in Greenland, Jeff Colgan and William Colgan

10. Deep Trouble: Emerging Resource Competition in the Deep Sea, Scott Moore and Dale Squires