2005 Ten-Year Forecast Perspectives [SR-891]

The truth is that we humans face tough times ahead—not 50 to 100 years from now, but by the end of this decade. Whether or not we believe that CO2 is a pollutant responsible for global climate change, the truth is that extreme climate events will increasingly threaten crops, ocean-side properties, city infrastructures, and human life within the coming decade. Megacities will sprawl across the developed and developing world alike, their ecological footprints stepping all over one another. China’s rapid growth, with setbacks along the way, will redraw not only the global economic map but also the global political map. A biodisaster — natural or human-made — lurks the horizon. And technologies designed to manage these problems may well collapse under their own complexity.