🚀 go-pugleaf

WHAT WILL LIFE LOOK LIKE IN THE YEAR 3000?

The answer must be : Totally different from now.  Just look at what we
have to look forward to?  Not a lot.

THE ENERGY CRUNCH

Fuels - fossil fuels and uranium - are predicted to run out by 2050, and 
hydroelectric and geology are close to their maximum capacity.  Unless
alternative sources of energy can be developed in time there will be 
a collapse in production.

As a result of the loss of fossil fuels the petrochemical industry will
cease (no raw materials) which will mean no more plastics etc. with 
devastating effects - just imagine how dependent we are on artificial 
fibres for clothing. 

CLIMATE CHANGE
The predicted global warming will devastate agriculture and cause 
an intensification of weather (colder winters + hotter summers), flooding 
of low-lying areas etc. Ozone depletion is less of a problem since its 
effects will reach a maximum and then be reduced as the ozone layer 
restores itself. 

THE FOOD AND WATER CRUNCH
Wordwide, freshwater resources are diminishing and can be expected to be
an increasing cause of conflict in the near future.  Foodwise, the 
benefits of the green revolution are being swamped by the ever-increasing 
populations as a result wildlife will be squeezed and extinctions will
increase dramatically.

DISEASE
The spread of diseases such as AIDS, TB, and antibiotic-resistant 
infections is occurring now and will accellerate and be made worse by 
pollution related illness (e.g. asthma), and demographic pressures on 
health services.



So that is the next 50 years or so.  I predict a massive collapse in 
world populations analagous to that occurring around 1350 AD when trade 
and agriculture were no longer able to cope and the old system collapsed.
And the Black Death finiished what was left over. Then populations 
took some 400 years to recover.  This time round it will be much worse,
The post-cataclysmic population will probably be reduced to perhaps 2
billion.  But by year 3000 AD civilization should have recovered to a 
level which agriculture and energy resources can support and 
(hopefully) population control measures put in place to maintain a good 
standard of living.


-- 
Steve Clark
Centre for Environmental Chemistry, BRUNEL University
Uxbridge, Middx UB8 3PH, UK
URL : http://http1.brunel.ac.uk:8080/~casrsjc