The barrier of 8 billion inhabitants on earth is crossed. This is a  big real challenge for poor countries Kawan!

Never had the earth experienced such demographic growth. According to the official estimate of the United Nations (UN), the world population crossed the eight billion mark on Tuesday, 15 November, while the inhabitants were still only 2.5 billion in 1950 and less than one billion until the 1800s.

Yesterday, November 15, 2022, the world population reached 8 billion. The world population is growing at its slowest rate since 1950, after falling to less than 1% in 2020. Thus, the 8 billion mark is crossed amid the world climate conference, COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, which once again underlines the difficulty of the rich countries, those most responsible for global warming, and of the poor countries, which are calling for help to deal with it, to accept more ambitious reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of human origin.

Today, 50% of the world’s population has enough to eat. Malnutrition, undernutrition, and even obesity linked to junk food are fundamental problems of the 21st century that we gladly forget to the detriment of our personal well-being. The issue of agricultural production in terms of quantity, quality and price have direct repercussions on our health, and that of our loved ones, already today. What about the regions in which Fair Future and Kawan Baik are active daily?

All of them there? What are they eating today? They already suffer from a child malnutrition rate which is the highest in this country (4th world population, it should be remembered). And tomorrow, what will happen again for all those who year after year, become poorer and poorer? It’s terrifying.

We continue to produce waste that we no longer know where to put. We think first of ourselves and less and less of others. TikTok has become one of the priorities of young people (and even the not-so-young), to the detriment of reading and the desire to learn.

Faced with this exponential population growth, how can we feed everyone in good conditions? Our impact on the planet is determined much more by our behavior than by our numbers Kawan! And meanwhile, the G20!

The latest United Nations projections suggest that the world population could reach around 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050, and almost 11 billion people during the 2080s and remain at this level until 2100. And that scares me even more because people don’t change! Our habits, our way of living in harmony with others, and how today’s young people eat. Here in Indonesia, the cheapest food and the most harmful to health. Pop-Mie©, Indomie©. This should not be the case in an ideal world. We don’t live in an ideal world, and learning to eat healthily is not part of the education system here, far from it.

NGOs like Kawan Baik or Fair Future Foundation are essential kawan. They are more than ever today and much less so than tomorrow. And more than ever, they need you all. Let’s continue to help for the love of all who need you.

We must think and act together to try to reverse the course of events. This is not a fight; it is a human duty. I think and act/work this way because I am one of those eight billion people.

The November 16, 2022 – Alexandre Wettstein – Ceo, Founder of the Swiss Fair Future Foundation.