“Population-related data from census, surveys, and other administrative data can and must be used for adaptation to climate change,” says José Miguel Guzmán in this week’s podcast from the launch of The Demography of Adaptation to Climate Change. As the devastation from Typhoon Haiyan shows, population density, poverty levels, and even building construction quality can have a huge impact on how vulnerable a particular area is to extreme weather, flooding, and other effects of climate change.

When it comes to coping with the effects of climate change, cities will be a crucial proving ground for adaptation efforts. Over the next few decades, the percentage of the world’s population living in urban areas is projected to increase to 67 percent – 6.3 billion people by 2050, according to the UN. But because three-quarters of the world’s major cities are located on coastlines, the growing percentage of urban residents means more people will be vulnerable to environmental stressors such as sea level rise and storm surges.

“Everyone uses the word ‘empowerment.’ It’s now such an overused word,” says UN Foundation Senior Fellow Alaka Basu in this week’s podcast. “You are empowered if you have a choice of 10 different shampoos in the grocery store; you are empowered if you have 100 kinds of cereals to buy; you are empowered by virtually anyone wanting to sell you something.”

“Maps are inherently compelling because they contain a high resolution of information and most people have really been trained since grade school on how to read a map,” says Population Action International mapping specialist Gina Sarfaty in this week’s podcast.

More than four decades ago, Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren said complacency concerning the impact of human population growth is “unjustified and counterproductive.” More than 200 years ago, Thomas Malthus made the case that “the way we have to reduce the birth rate is family planning and delaying marriage, [thus] expanding the number of years between births,” says Duke University’s William Pan in this week’s podcast.

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka never expected to be so deeply involved in family planning when she started Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) 10 years ago. CTPH began with a simple mission: to help preserve endangered mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. But, as Kalema-Zikusoka explains in this week’s podcast, they quickly found that to help the gorillas, they had to help the people living around them.

“Food is really fundamental to people’s daily existence, and the price or the access to that food is clearly important to them, and people will turn out in the streets when that price spike is unanticipated,” says Emmy Simmons, author of Harvesting Peace: Food Security, Conflict, and Cooperation, in this week’s podcast.

Simmons gives an overview of the latest edition of ECSP Report, which examines how conflict affects food security, and how food security affects conflict.

When Tropical Cyclone Haruna struck in February 2013, leaving thousands without shelter and tens of thousands without water, it was a test for Blue Ventures’ integrated approach to development in southwest Madagascar. According to Dr. Vik Mohan, they passed.

“By the time the first aid organization arrived just to collect information, we had distributed to 17 villages already,” Mohan says in this week’s podcast. “We were the mouthpiece of the community, and because of our infrastructure on the ground, because of our good relationships with the community, we were able to procure and disseminate supplies that the community needed.”