A quick scan through the charts and graphs of Pakistan’s most recent Demographic and Health Survey yields more than a few insights into the performance of the government’s health policies and the public health and demographic challenges it will face in the future.

Few would argue with the notion that socioeconomic development is contingent on peace, safety, and security. What goes for nations, goes for people too – especially young people.

This fall, a series of significant events signaled what many see as a shift toward meaningful collective action on climate change.

Global population growth is so rapid that even the most severe crises imaginable would still leave the planet with more people than it can sustainably support, according to a recent study by the University of Adelaide’s Corey Bradshaw and Barry Brook published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Pangani River in Tanzania is important for many reasons: its three major dams provide 17 percent of the country’s electricity; it sustains thousands of farmers and herders living in the basin; and its flow of fresh water supports humans, industry, and ecosystems. But most interesting might be the innovative water policies that govern withdrawals, infrastructure projects, and ecosystems along its banks.

With UN demographers more certain than ever that global population will reach between 10 and 12 billion by the end of the century, the challenge of building a sustainable future seems daunting. But according to Wolfgang Lutz, founding director of the Vienna-based Wittgenstein Center for Demography and Global Human Capital, these projections miss one crucial variable: increasing levels of education. [Video Below]