2022 seen by science: what worries, what gives hope

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Population, CO₂ atmosphere, life expectancy of the French… 2022 was marked by significant increases and worrying decreases. Overview.

Par Jean-Francois Bouvet

LThe scientific data for 2022 offers us an anthology of spectacular rises and falls that do not always go in the desired direction.

First example, November 15, 2022: according to the UN, the threshold of eight billion earthlings has just been exceeded, which means that the world’s population has doubled in just 48 years. Other records on the rise linked to this galloping demography are those of atmospheric CO2 and, due to the greenhouse effect, of temperatures. In May 2022, the level of CO2 in the air passed the threshold of 420 ppm (parts per million), a figure 50% higher than before the industrial era and not reached for four million years. We already know that 2022 will be the year the hottest ever recorded in France.

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