World population continues to grow. The latest UN projections, released this week, indicate that we will add another 2 billion people to the planet by 2050 and 3 billion by the end of the century.  While population growth is ebbing in many countries—and even starting to contract in a few—population growth in some countries remains brisk, if not breakneck. 

It’s disturbing to see the data going in the wrong direction and it means we have to go beyond what we’ve been doing, said Terri D. Wright, Vice President of Programs and Community at the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation at a recent event on equitable prenatal care in the United States hosted by The Jennifer Bush-Lawson Foundation and the American Medical Association at Duke University in DC. “We can’t do the same things the same way and expect a different outcome,” she said. “We’ve got to do something different.”

Residents of Chennai, by all accounts, are miserable and anxious. The city’s main reservoirs are dry, depleted by the failure of successive monsoons to provide replenishing rains. The shortfall has crippled the piped distribution network, which is now meeting just half of typical demand through a mix of secondary sources: desalinated water, groundwater, and the impoundments from nearby stone quarries. Even that supply is far from adequate. Piped water reaches households once a week or less. Tanker trucks, an expensive alternative, dole out water by the bucketful to desperate crowds.

“Too often in the United States, the narrative that we hear about Africa is one of poverty, war, and ineffective or failed states. It is a crisis, a place best engaged through aid packages and humanitarian assistance,” said Keith Lee, President and Chief Operating Officer of Brown Capital Management at a recent Wilson Center event hosted by the Africa Program. “This has never been the entire story, and today more than ever, Africa is undergoing enormous transformations that challenge this narrative,” Lee said.

It is important to take an inclusive and tangible approach to protecting civilians by protecting the environment during armed conflicts. In recent decades, the link between conflict, the environment and the protection of civilians has become painstakingly clear. From Iraq to Ukraine, Libya to Yemen, dozens of incidents have surfaced where environmental damage resulting from conflict has led to acute or chronic health risks to civilians and their communities, undermining their socioeconomic development.

Sustainable solutions for Chinese communities featured in two of our top posts for May. In the top post, Karen Mancl digs into the soil quality of Chinese farmland. Conservation agriculture mixes ancient farming practices with new technology to reclaim and restore land disturbed by construction and intense industrial farming. Mancl features in our list again with her piece focusing on the potential of sand bioreactors to be an affordable, right-sized alternative to mechanical wastewater treatment plants for rural China villages.