April 8, Minsk /Corr. BELTA/. The Earth's population has exceeded the acceptable level for the planet's sustainability. This is reported by the Science Alert portal, citing research from Australian scientists.

"Based on demographic data spanning more than two centuries, a team of researchers from Flinders University in Australia found that humanity is living well beyond what our planet can sustainably support in the long term," the material states.

According to scientists, the Earth's population is around 8.3 billion people, while the optimal number is only 2.5 billion. Researchers emphasized that a peak of 11-12 billion people may be reached in the second half of the 21st century.

According to scientists, the Earth is not keeping up with how humanity uses resources and cannot sustain the future and even today's population without a serious restructuring of sociocultural practices for the use of land, water, energy, biodiversity, and other resources.-0-