To wonder what the world will be like in 20 years?

[DitchTheDodo]

Things just seem so doom and gloom at the moment. The climate isn't changing, it's changed. Our natural world is disappearing. Fires everywhere, floods. Food shortages, literal shit in our water. Prices are rising and rising. People can't afford to live and the unrest seems to be growing.

I'm 31 and I don't remember things seeming this bad when I was growing up but maybe I was just too young and carefree to notice properly. Now I'm older and have a daughter myself I worry about what kind of world she will grow up in.

I know that nobody has a crystal ball but would love to hear people's thoughts on what things might be like!

It's always been like this...the difference now is that we hear about awful things in real time from multiple sources.

I think things have always seemed bad, big picture-wise. Previous generations had Chernobyl, the Cold War, the ACTUAL wars. Mass post-industrial unemployment. And worse.

Does your life seem really awful day to day? Mine generally doesn’t, despite many challenges. I try not to give the broad arc of history too much headspace.

I somewhat disagree with PP - it hasn't always been like this because climate change has only become a pressing issue in recent years (from the public's point of view)

And my parents in their 60s say these last 5 years have been the worst period they've lived through.

I'm 32 and share your concerns OP

Information in real time doesn't help.. My adult children have said they don't think they'll be having children due to environmental and financial factors, I can't say I blame them.

It's going to be crap but I'll probably be dead.

Your daughter will adjust to it like everyone else in history has had to adjust to changes. Like the kids who had to live through WW1 and WW2. Like the kids who had to live through covid.

People are more adaptable than we give them credit for. When there is no other choice people adapt remarkably quickly.

😱

I imagine we’ll all cope.

They have plastic eating bugs and all sorts of ocean cleanups going on if you read the right news.

Change your news sources and enjoy your life, I know I always say it but there is absolutely no point whatsoever fretting and worrying about what you cannot control.

Do your best in your corner of the world and be a good person, it's all you can do.

20 years ago the job I do just didn't exist, mobile phones were still very much for calls and texts and my local high street still had real shops. The kind that sell things not services.

There's no way I could have predicted how much technology was going to overtake almost the entirety of our lives. A part of me wonders if there's going to be another incredible leap in tech over the next 20 years or if actually the scarcity of minerals with force a retro-adaption requirement instead.

In truth, if I'd known just how problematic the climate change issue was going to be I probably would have actively chosen not to have children rather than just going with the flow (first wasn't planned). I think the next 20 years are going to see a lot more extremes of weather, with the UK benefiting from more tourists from EU countries that are baking in the summer heat for a more temperate climate...albeit one with unpredictable rainfall.

Personally, I think in my lifetime food is going to become a major issue because of climate change and we're all going to have to adapt in some way. Sadly part of that will be more UPFs because they can be preserved for far longer increasing the number of people who can be fed before the food rots.

That's all pure speculation on my part, and honestly I don't worry about it. My future planning goes as far as making sure I have enough toilet roll until I next go shopping and paying into my pension pot. Everything else I'll deal with when it lands on me because I have neither the resources nor the emotional resilience to do otherwise.

Objectively, most of the world (certainly in the rich west) is better than it had ever been.... read some history, OP! In 20 years, I suspect that little will have changed.

I used to hate 2024 until I started reading fiction and looked up more about history. The world is better now in almost every way, with the exception of the natural environment and overpopulation.

There have always been wars, famine, inflation... at least now other countries are able to help out to some extent.

tbh you are coming when the world is at its best. I remember my grandparents talking about the war, we grew under communism, there is not much we personally have not seen which makes this time here, in this country worse. You should a reality check

If I was Ukranian, I would have had grand parents talking about the war, me growing under communism and me, living now in war in Ukraine to be there for my husband. Do some reality check. This country here is full with nothing else but people scared of their own shadow

And my parents in their 60s say these last 5 years have been the worst period they've lived through.

The 90s weren't that great.

I think it's important to have the perspective of history. Things have been a lot worse, in many ways, in living memory. Life will never be perfect, and there will always be wars and disasters. It's not necessarily worse now than at any time in the past.

Or the 70s or the 80s.

It's going to be amazing. I posted about this a month ago; quoting myself:

This is from the Economist (archived link), one of a June 2024 series on how 'clean energy' is going to change the world and just make everything better. I'm slightly pissed off that I won't be here to live through it! (Also pissed off that I have no money to invest in solar, but them's the breaks.)

In short, solar power's improving and increasing so fast that, by the mid-2030s, it will be the main power source throughout the world and a hell of a lot cheaper than fossil fuels. The ready availability of solar energy will free up creative developments that aren't currently happening because they'd be expensive or difficult.

Even more excitingly, Africa will get rich because it's got a lot of sunshine. This will radically alter world inequalities. The impending cascade of economic migration probably won't happen, because a rich Africa can afford shiny new irrigation systems, transportation, and to keep their people cool & healthy.

It's going to be an age of hope, possibility and incredible achievements.

There are quite a few problems to overcome, the two big ones being that all the solar equipment currently comes from China and we need better systems to store & distribute electricity generated in Africa. Also, the oil producers won't be happy about this and may try to stop it - though they are investing heavily in 'clean' sources, so this could even itself out.

I'm in my 60s and have lived through far worse. The 3 day week in the 70s, power cuts - never knowing if we'd have electricity that day. Transport strikes, rubbish piling up in the streets. Rioting in Toxteth, Brixton and Tottenham. Inflation and interest rates rocketing.
The Cold War.

If you didn’t listen to the news, would your life be full of the things you mention? Have you noticed anything on your list actually happening - fires, floods, famine, war, etc etc? Just turn off the news. Be a happy ostrich. Life’s too short.

Exactly. My dad tells me stories of air raids and having to run to the air raid shelter. He was forced to leave school at 15 to earn money for all the mouths to feed in the family. He had to do National Service.
I grew up in the 80s. It was all Thatcher and strikes and no jobs and the threat of WW3 imminent.
Every decade has its good points and bad points. It's about seeing more of the positives and less of the negatives.

@MermaidEyes - in a nutshell.

Sadly, I believe that there will always be wars & conflicts somewhere in the world

I believe that there will be more issues related to not enough resources like; land, food, water, minerals

There will be more technology, robots, AI, new inventions for urban living, space exploration & colonisation, under sea living
Versus
Areas with simple off grid living, little technology

Some aspects of life may become better like medical care.

I believe that someone predicted in the past, that humans in the future would have much more leisure time, hobbies, longer life spans

I think the modern world is quite selfish, so unless it effects individuals directly they don’t really care. A lot of the responses to your thread kind of prove that.
I think for that reason things aren’t going to improve. People mainly passively accept things and just grumble about it, me included actually.
People don’t seem to want the world to be a better place for everyone, they just dismiss awful situations and compare them to past things in ‘they suffered this, so tough, we suffer that’ kind of way. This planet is wasted on humans.

We had a blip of a decade or two where things in this country at least were overall pretty decent, plenty of periods of human history have been savage AF, and not even all that far back! Not saying that makes it okay, but that's it's normal for there to be things to worry about, cliche as it sounds none of us know how long we have on this planet anyway, so try and make the most of each day and not get bogged down in stuff you can't control.

I worked as a HCA when I was 18 in A&E, what struck me most is that for the vast majority of those in accidents or who had life changing medical episodes etc, is that they were just going about their normal day. Boring activities like heading to work, shopping etc- you just never know.

I know that perspective makes it worse for some, but I sort of find it comforting.

I think the world won't be toooo different in 20 years, but will radically change in the next 100 years.

I'm your parents age and I remember lots of headlines about the climate when I was younger, and they have never stopped. The ozone layer, civilisation was going to end by 2000, a new ice age was coming, the earth cannot sustain the population and we'll all starve etc. The difference now is immediate access to news and social media. I didn't worry about it then, and I don't worry about it now.

Yeah wasn't King Charles going on about the environment even decades ago? And of course others, I just mean it doesn't seem like it was a fringe or obscure thing to hear about!