The United Nations today said the world’s population today hit 8 billion mark. According to the UN, a baby born somewhere on Tuesday will be the world’s eight billionth person.
“The milestone is an occasion to celebrate advancements with shared responsibility for the planet,” Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General said.
The UN attributes the growth to human development, with people living longer thanks to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine.
He said that it was also the outcome of higher fertility rates, particularly in the world’s poorest countries and improvement in healthcare facilities globally.
The UN chief said that the population growth has also magnified the environmental impacts of economic development.
However, some worry that eight billion people are too many for planet Earth, while most say the real challenge is the overconsumption of resources by the wealthiest people.
“Some express concerns that our world is overpopulated,” said United Nations Population Fund chief Natalia Kanem. “I am here to say clearly that the sheer number of human lives is not a cause for fear.”
According to Joel Cohen of Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Populations, the question of how many people Earth can support involves two sides: natural limits and human choices.
He said, “Our choices result in humans consuming far more biological resources, such as forests and land, than the planet can regenerate each year.”
The overconsumption of fossil fuels is leading to more carbon dioxide emissions and this is major problem for global warming.
