What future for our planet?

How much longer our planet will be able to endure our current way of life.

By Angelo Simoes

A few predictions

For more than 30 years, 2100 has been a kind of distant horizon for policies that project themselves onto a warming planet. But the deadline is now dangerously close. By the end of the century, children born in 2021 will not even be 80. So, maybe it’s time to go and see what awaits them. What an international team has revealed to us today on the afterlife is not encouraging. By the year 2500, the Earth could become uninhabitable.

How many will be on Earth?

By 2050, the world population is expected to reach 9.8 billion and will have to face demographic, economic and climate problems that will take more and more place in our lives. Forecasts show countries like Nigeria experiencing a population explosion that would make it the third most populous country in the world by 2050 behind India and China. This will have consequences on life and places of habitation, most of the world’s population will be crowded in urban areas especially in Africa and Asia. These areas will also be enlarged to the detriment of nature. Other estimates say that by 2100 the Earth’s temperature could rise to 1.7°C, which could have disastrous consequences, especially on the melting of ice.

Action is needed now

In conclusion, the researchers warn us that if we fail to stop or at least slow down significantly - global warming, the planet will be radically altered over the next 500 years. In a way this will test our ability to maintain many of the essential elements of our existence, "especially in cultures with historical and geographical roots that give us meaning and identity". We now face a simple choice: urgently reducing greenhouse gas emissions while continuing to adapt to global warming.