Louise Sallé, edited by Gauthier Delomez 7:52 p.m., November 15, 2022

The planet Earth has since Tuesday more than eight billion human beings, according to an estimate of the United Nations.

A number that hides many challenges, and above all that of being able to all live together.

Because according to a demographer interviewed by Europe 1, there is no fatality in seeing the world population continue to grow.

The counter rises and exceeds a new symbolic bar, that of eight billion inhabitants according to an estimate of the United Nations.

The Earth is home to a population of human beings that has been growing steadily for decades, when there were 2.5 billion inhabitants on the planet in 1950. By the end of the 21st century, the world population should even exceed ten billion people.

A number that hides several challenges on a global scale.

>> READ ALSO

- World population: "Eight billion and me, and me..."

We will first have to invest in a lot of public infrastructure, as in Africa.

On this continent, the inhabitants today represent one in six human beings, it will be a third of the world's population in 2100. India is also experiencing an increase in its population, and should exceed that of China by 2023.

Adopt "a sustainable lifestyle"

However, for the demographer Gilles Pison who works at the National Museum of Natural History and INED, there is no fatality.

"We are going to be two billion more by 2050, but hardly more then or even less from the end of the century", he tempers at the microphone of Europe 1. "The challenges are there, but a priori , we are not heading towards a generalized famine", he adds.

The increase in the number of inhabitants also raises the question of pollution and the resulting CO2 emissions.

According to the demographer, we must not give up having children.

"We cannot play on a demographic curve in the short term", he assures us, "in ten, 20, 30 years from now, because of demographic inertia, it is not a lever on which we can play", explains Gilles Pison.

“On the other hand, we can play on lifestyles”, supports the researcher.

"Have the children you want and the number you want, but make sure you have a sustainable lifestyle."

>> Find Europe Soir in replay and podcast here

Consuming more sober and otherwise would therefore be the solution to live for ten billion people on Earth.