In some parts of the world, natural resources are a given; in others, they’re a daily challenge. Our latest short film, Broken Landscape, examines the confrontation between those that rely on “rat-hole” coal mining for a living in northeast India and those affected by water pollution downstream.

The drivers of this year’s Ebola epidemic – the worst on record and the first to reach multiple continents – are structural and deep, wrote Laurie Mazur in one of this year’s most-read articles. Deforestation, persistent poverty, and perhaps most importantly, crumbling trust in public institutions all played critical roles in sparking a fire still smoldering in West Africa.

The largest outbreak of Ebola on record has sparked intense second-guessing of authorities around the world, and lack of trust in public institutions was a major factor in its spread through West Africa, wrote Laurie Mazur last month.

What if it’s not increased scarcity that’s most disruptive about climate change, but variability? Cullen Hendrix explains how new research on water conflict suggests that’s the case in last month’s most popular story.

It’s been 20 years since the Environmental Change and Security Program was founded to shed light on the new security issues of our times, so in honor of this anniversary, we’ve rounded up the 20 most popular stories of all time.

We started the last top 10 post tracking the dramatic battle over Iraq’s Mosul Dam and the most popular of August took a closer look. Cameron Harrington and I explain that this isn’t the first time water has played a major role in the fighting, while also exploring ways it could be a peacemaker.

As Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant rebels were steadily pushing into Iraq last month, ultimately threatening the country’s largest dam, water conflict was a popular topic on the blog.

Adaptation, mitigation, or suffering – those are the three choices people the world over face when confronted with climate change, wrote guest contributor Paul Wapner in one of last month’s most popular posts. Joining him were new posts on population, climate, and peacebuilding efforts in Africa and how “smart city” technologies are being applied in growing urban areas around the world.