Time.com offered an interesting read recently about what the world will look like in 2050. Sounds like a ways off, but its not when we consider what needs to happen to accommodate the boom that we’re talking about.
According to the article, in 2050, we’re looking at 9.5 billion people. That’s less than 40 years away. Go back in time to 1950 – just 2.5 billion. When we hear our parents talk about the good ol’ days, they aren’t kidding. We need to listen to learn lessons about appreciating time and space, because it is soon to be on its way out.
To lend some perspective about being neighborly in 2050…for those of you reading from suburbia, look outside to your neighbors house. Now, add another house in between; another family of 4, with a dog, a cat, and a goldfish. Things are going to get tight here on the terrestrial world. For those of you in the cities – think it’s a fight on the subways now?
We have some serious proactive thinking and strategic planning to do to get ready. What’s scary is that it will sneak up on us, with population growth rates only hovering at about 1% per year (remember its compounded, just like credit card interest). Can Planet Earth handle all this? I just don’t know, and to be honest I have my doubts. Natural resource depletion is a real thing, and its already going in the wrong direction thanks to humans’ use and abuse. My opinion is that 2050 will come with a largely manufactured existence, and a vastly altered perception of high quality of life.
The obvious solution to the squeeze here on land, is to look at the unused area of our Planet. Terra firma may very well reach critical mass, possibly even causing some degree of natural selection or mass extinction to set in, but this is avoidable if we consider the 95% of living space on this Planet that has yet to be permanently occupied – the oceans. Dennis Chamberland – engineer, visionary, explorer – said it best, ‘Population ZERO‘. Its a frontier there for the taking…
Image via Wikipedia