According to projections from the United Nations, a baby born on Tuesday, Nov. 15 will officially boost the population to the eight billionth, as the current number is just shy of the major milestone. Per the UN’s calculations, the population will even reach 8.5 billion by 2030, as a result of increases in life expectancy. “The milestone is an occasion to celebrate diversity and advancements while considering humanity’s shared responsibility for the planet,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement, per Yahoo News. The world population is reportedly able to grow as a result of developments that expand life expectancy, including improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medical advancements. Higher fertility rates are also considered to be a factor in the rising population. While some fear that the climbing population is overcrowding the planet, experts insist that the bigger issue is the overconsumption of resources by the wealthiest people in the world. “Some express concerns that our world is overpopulated,” United Nations Population Fun chief Natalia Kanem stated. “I am here to say clearly that the sheer number of human lives is not a cause for fear.” Instead, the issue mostly lies with humans consuming more biological resources than the Earth can reproduce, as well as the overconsumption of the fossil fuels responsible for global warming, according to Joel Cohen of Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Populations. “We are stupid. We lacked foresight. We are greedy. We don’t use the information we have. That’s where the choices and the problems lie,” Cohen said, per Yahoo. While the population is expected to reach eight million on Tuesday, experts predict we won’t reach nine billion for 15 more years, and that reaching 10 billion could take all the way until 2080. More News:
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