The Future

When the 21^st century began, people looked forward to a new millennium (the next 1,000 years). No one could say what kind of new world would take shape. Would say what kind of new world would take shape. Would computers take over more jobs from people? Scientists have made amazing advances in understanding how the human body works by identifying genes. Could science create new plants or even animals?

The world is rich enough to support even today’s population of over billion. But never before in human history has it seemed so small and under such pressure. Humans may visit Mars in the next 100 years, but there is no nearby planet like Earth to move to. Homo sapiens has to live in, and conserve, the world our prehistoric ancestors first explored. This must also happen under increasing pressure from an expanding population – it is predicted to reach 7 billion by 2012.

Many people believe that resources are being used at an unsustainable rate and that, before too long, we will not be able to create enough energy to provide food, clothing, heating and shelter for everyone. Others point to the impact that energy production today is having on the planet. They feel that population from the burning of fossils fuels is pushing the world’s temperatures up, causing global warming, and this will have disastrous consequences on the natural world as well as the towns and cities we live in.

There is also a great inequality as to how energy production and wealth are disturbed around the planet. A small minority of people have the vast majority of the wealth and use the most energy, while huge numbers of people live in poverty.