‘YOUTH SURGE’ SYMPOSIUM SET FOR WORLD POPULATION DAY WASHINGTON— “Youth Surge,” a symposium on the global health, environmental and social implications of adolescents and youths who now account for nearly half of the world’s 6.5 billion people will be held at the National Press Club here from 2-4 p.m., Tuesday, July 11th, designated by the United Nations as World Population Day. The Population Institute, the United Nations Association/National Capital Area (UNA/NCA) and the United Nations Population Fund are co-sponsors of the event. Many of the world’s 3 billion people under the age of 25 are faced with health, economic, geographic and socio-cultural barriers. Studies have concluded that addressing young people’s principal needs and concerns is central to reducing global poverty and achieving sustainable development and population stabilization. Members of the symposium panel include Lester Brown, president and founder of the Earth Policy Institute, called “one of the world’s most influential thinkers” by The Washington Post; Carl Haub, senior demographer and Conrad Taeuber Chair of Population Information at the Population Reference Bureau; Dr. Laurie Schwab Zabin, former director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins University, and Mushahida Adhikari, a South African attorney who has developed legislation to address trafficking in children and women in her country. Twenty years ago, Brown received a request for his personal writings from the United States Library of Congress, which noted that his work has “already strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and resources.” He is the recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees, as well as a MacArthur Fellowship and the United Nations Environment Prize. Haub has been with the Population Reference Bureau since