The eighth ordinary meeting of the conference of the parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity is scheduled to take place 20-31 March 2006 in Curitiba, Brazil.

As of 2005, the most populated countries according to estimates from the United Nations Population Division are, in descending order, China, India, The United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, The Russian Federation, Nigeria, and Japan.

Often called the rainforests of the marine world, coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. Reefs provide surrounding communities with food, medicine, storm protection, and income from tourism. Like rainforests, however, coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to human activities such as coastal development, sedimentation, pollution, and destructive fishing. An estimated 58 percent of the world's coral reefs are threatened as a result of human activities.

'Sustainable Development' is an official term, coined in a 1987 report produced by the World Commission on Environment and Development. Entitled Our Common Future or the Brundtland Report (after the Chairman of the commission, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland), the report defines 'sustainable development' as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"; this includes economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity. The entire report can be found on-line at the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs Division for Sustainable Development website.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released The State of the World's Children 2006: Excluded and Invisible, their annual flagship publication concerning children's health and well-being. The full report is available on-line; select photos, maps, graphs, and tables from the publication are available separately. The information covered in this report includes children's health issues such as HIV/AIDS, immunization, and malnutrition, and how countries can further their efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals. EarthTrends reports many of the most prominent statistics from this publication; the relevant variables in the EarthTrends searchable database will be updated shortly.

One of the most frequently utilized gauges of poverty is the percent of people within a country or region that live on less than one dollar ($1) a day [a]. About 1/5 of the Earth's population, or 1.1 billion people, currently live on less than $1 a day [1]. Nine of the ten countries with the largest percent of people in this category are in Africa; Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Gambia, Niger, Zambia, Central African Republic, Nigeria, and Mali have 49% to a staggering 73%, respectively, of their populations living in extreme poverty conditions. Between 1981 and 2001 the percent of total people in Sub-Saharan Africa living on less than $1 a day increased 93%, from 164 million to 316 million [1].

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is the most widely known "greenhouse gas". Over the 20th century, global atmospheric CO2 levels have steadily risen from just below 300 parts per million (ppm) in the early 1900's to current levels of approximately 380ppm. General consensus within the scientific community ascribes this increase to the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas). In 2000, the world emitted some 24 billion metric tons of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels. This means roughly 3.9 metric tons were emitted on a per capita basis worldwide. However, the disparity between the developed world and the developing world is substantial; per capita, people residing in developed countries emitted 11.2 metric tons, nearly 6 times their counterparts in the developing world where the per capita average equaled 1.9 metric tons.

The Poverty Resource is a special section of EarthTrends that, in part, serves as a repository for subnational datasets describing various aspects of human well-being compiled by the World Resources Institute from many sources, including The World Bank and The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). This week, we added new country profiles for Vietnam, Brazil, and South Africa. In a

Freedom House released its annual Freedom in the World report on September 30th. This well-respected publication relies on extensive surveys of academics, journalists, and other experts to rate the level of "Political Rights" and "Civil Liberties" available to citizens within 206 countries and territories. The data, along with country profiles, a global map, and a detailed description of the methodology can be found here.

At present, the answer is no. Data on waste are notoriously difficult to find, especially because there are frequently separate statistics dealing with municipal waste, industrial waste, and hazardous waste. In most instances (see exceptions noted below), to find information on this topic you will probably need to look at statistical compilations (if available) for individual countries; these estimates are most likely found on a country's government home page.