Activities are taking place today around the world in honor of International Youth Day. This year's theme, "Tackling Poverty Together: Young People and the Eradication of Poverty," brings attention to the hundreds of millions of young people who live below international poverty lines and face additional challenges of unemployment, HIV/AIDS, and illiteracy.

Around 1800 A.D., the earth's population reached 1 billion people. That number rose to 3 billion by 1960. Since then, world population has increased by another 1 billion people every 12-14 years. This unprecedented growth rate has led to a more-than doubling of global population over the last fifty years. Today, the total global population is approximately 6.5 billion people and best projections anticipate continued rapid increases in coming decades.

A collection of 405 Powerpoint slides featuring graphics from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) One Planet Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment report are available online and can be downloaded for free. In this report, the impact of a single generation of human activity on the world's physical geography is stunningly captured through current and historical satellite imagery.

The number of refugees worldwide fell by over 1 million in 2005 to 8.4 million--the lowest total since 1980--but the number of internally displaced people increased by roughly 1.2 million over the past year, reaching 6.6 million. These are some of the findings from the 2005 Global Refugee Trends report, released earlier this month by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)

June 5th is World Environment Day, an annual event sponsored by the United Nations to raise environmental awareness at a global level. World Environment Day 2006 will be based in Algiers, Algeria, and include a host of parallel activities and information sessions in more than 100 countries. This year's events highlight a year-long focus by the United Nations on drylands and desertification.

The 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic was released yesterday by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS reports an apparent slowing in the global spread of the virus, but also highlights several areas where response and prevention efforts are falling short.

This month, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) released their annual Red List of Threatened Species. The IUCN assessed over 40,000 species of animals and plants. Globally, the number of threatened species has increased by more than 50 percent in the last decade to 16,119. Nearly 600 new species were identified as threatened in this assessment, and more than 800 species have now been officially declared as extinct in the wild.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released its 2006 edition of the World Health Report this month. This year's publication, entitled "Working Together for Health", focuses on the health workforce and the desperate need for increased numbers of health professionals, particularly within developing countries. The results of the report estimate that some 4.3 million additional doctors, nurses, midwives, managers and public health workers are required worldwide, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, to provide basic health services for the global population.

"Because of its growth and development, the human population increasingly affects the hydrological cycle, altering its quality and distribution. But the amount of freshwater on Earth, to be shared among all forms of life, remains the same. This situation imposes on humankind a responsibility to develop ethically sound systems of water governance."

--Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Today is World Water Day. Coordinated this year by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this annual event is devoted to increasing recognition of the many social and environmental issues surrounding freshwater resources. World Water Day 2006 directs focus to the significant link between water and culture--"Cultural traditions, indigenous practices, and societal values determine how people perceive and manage water in the world's different regions" (UNESCO)--bringing into focus the diverse ways in which water is incorporated into our lives and the need for international, inter-cultural solutions to preserve and increase access to freshwater.

The spread of avian influenza (bird flu) to some 15 European and Asian countries and parts of Africa has raised concerns about the increasingly globalized future of infectious diseases. National governments in four continents are implementing monitoring, research, and vaccine production programs in preparation for a potential pandemic.