"In the eyes of many governments, population has, as we all know, been a rather uncomfortable topic for a number of years," said Nobel Laureate Sir John Sulston, FRS, chair of the Institute for Science, Ethics, and Innovation at the University of Manchester and chair of the Royal Society's "People and the Planet" working group. Sulston and his co-panelists, Martha Campbell, president of Venture Strategies for Health and Development, and Professor Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue of Cornell University, encouraged active debate on a range of population dynamics and their connections to economic, environmental, and political futures.

Ethiopia and the Philippines are leading the way in demonstrating how this promising integrated approach can both improve community health and encourage environmental conservation. Field-based personnel from Ethiopia and the Philippines discussed the opportunities and challenges they have faced on the ground and share best practices across sectors-and across continents.

The deterioration of demographic conditions in Russia "truly qualifies as a crisis," argues Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute. Eberstadt outlines the major trends of the ongoing population problems plaguing the Russian Federation—as well as their potential future impact.

The latitudinal tenth parallel — located 700 miles above the equator — constitutes a "faith-based fault line" between Islam and Christianity, said Eliza Griswold at the launch of her latest book.