Indoor air pollution causes 1.6 million premature deaths every year and afflicts nearly half of the world's population, predominantly the rural poor. This makes it the second leading environmental health threat in the world and a critical barrier to poverty alleviation in low-income countries. Yet this issue is rarely discussed outside of public health circles, probably because the health consequences of indoor air pollution are not immediate and can be difficult to trace. Thus, indoor air pollution remains a quiet and neglected killer, with lack of global awareness being one of the primary obstacles to the widespread implementation of existing, proven interventions.

The last decade has seen a great deal of headway in malaria prevention, primarily through the distribution of record numbers of bed nets, says a recent UNICEF report. Just in the brief period of 2004-2006, worldwide production of insecticide-treated nets more than doubled, and sixteen sub-Saharan African countries report a three-fold increase in use of treated nets since 2000. Production of more effective antimalarial drugs, the other important component of reducing the disease's fatality, also increased greatly in recent years.

Population models reveal that the world's urban areas are growing in both size and density. However, the other side of the coin is important to keep in mind: three of every four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas, and most of them depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Even in a modern society, agriculture is timelessly important. The World Bank acknowledges this fact with the recent release of their 2008 World Development Report, titled Agriculture for Development.

Not only is agriculture centrally important as an employment for billions of people and a large share of GDP in agriculture-based countries, but it can transform a nation. Agriculture has a unique ability to foster development, the report says. Because of this, reforming the agricultural sector is central to progress toward the UN's Millennium Project goal of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

If greenhouse gas emissions continue in the "business as usual" trend, two-thirds of the world's polar bears may become extinct by 2050, according to a study released last month by the U.S. Geological Survey. The series of nine reports prepared by the USGS are intended to aid the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's upcoming decision on whether to designate the polar bear threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The period of public comments on these reports, which ended today, was the final period of public input before the January 9, 2008 final listing determination.

World Food Day, observed annually on October 16, this year draws attention to progress that remains to be made towards feeding the 850 million undernourished people worldwide. That statistic shouldn't just tug on conscience, but should enflame our sense of human justice, says the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

The right to food was on the list of essential human rights in the first international human rights agreement, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, commitments by nations to support this right have been slow to come. One nation that has made significant progress is Brazil, held up by FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf as an example of success.

As of last Saturday, October 6, 2007, the world's resources are overdrafted.

This date is designated Ecological Debt Day, the date marked every year on which human consumption of resources exceeds the amount the planet can produce or regenerate in a year; that is, when resource use becomes unsustainable. At this point, all additional resources used add more to the ecological deficit. This deficit has been accumulating, according to current calculations, since we first went into ecological debt in 1987.

Every year up to 30% of the global population suffers from some form of mental disorder, and at least two-thirds of those receive inadequate or no treatment, even in countries with the best resources. What's more, cost-effective treatments exist for most disorders. This year's World Mental Health Day brings attention to one cause for this problem: a lack of cross-cultural understanding.

Observed annually on October 10, World Mental Health Day aims to bring attention to mental health issues worldwide. This year's theme, "Mental health in a changing world: the impact of culture and diversity," is especially geared toward global perspective. The 2007 campaign focuses on the influence of cultural differences upon perception and treatment of mental illness.