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!

He was, and people laughed at him and thought he was eccentric!

There used to be worries about acid rain and the ozone layer, the AIDS epidemic, earthquakes, volcanos, tsunamis, two world wars, the Cold War, the nuclear threat, leaded petrol, the Magdalene laundries, a lack of child protection…

I sort of think that it's always been like this. I was at school in the height of the cold war and we would spend time at primary school discussing what we would do if we heard the 4 minute warning. That was supposedly the amount of time we would get should Russia launch an attack. Most of us were running home. Government advice in the event of a nuclear bomb going off was to stay inside. Raymond Briggs when the Wind Blows was later. My parents were born in one world war and active in the next. We just need to live our lives as best we can, while we can.

Oh yes, the ozone layer! Whatever happened to that?

In 20 years I think a huge area either side of the equator will be uninhabitable outside the winter months, and unable to grow any crops, so will be empty.

Billions of people will migrate north or south of this wide band and the already inhabited countries are going to have to kill those trying to enter. The UK will have to invest in thousands of drones capable of carrying weapons to repel invaders.

Food production will be incredibly restricted to areas not devastated by soaring temperatures. Rationing will be a thing again and will have to be strictly controlled and enforced. We probably have at least 20% more people than we could feed now, so euthanasia will be encouraged and birth control enforced.

Oh and of course the WWW will have to go. You can't keep control of your people (I mean avoiding Civil Unrest) if they have the Web. Countries could have their own Intranet instead.

It'll be Life, but it won't be free as now.

I think things will progressively get worse.
Wars, crime and social media in particular.

im now 33 and do think about the future alot right now, especially for my kids sake.

It got fixed, I think. When we stopped making things with CFCs.

@Tel12

What happened is scientists discovered chlorofluorocarbons were bad for the ozone, countries believed them, the Montreal Treaty was signed and CFC use dropped by 99.7% leading to the stabilisation of the ozone layer, perhaps the greatest example of global cooperation in history.

It's been healing, following huge global reductions in the harmful emissions, but has grown a bit over the last couple of years. There's now a dent over the Arctic as well, related to abnormally warm summers there.

I posted a bunch of good news upthread, but everyone's ignored it 😂 You do you, pessimists of Mumsnet!

I don't share your optimism.

Africa is hugely rich in terms of mineral wealth at the moment (including oil). I don't see Africans getting rich off the back of it. Or at least the vast majority of Africans.

As for power, in Europe that will come from nuclear, wind and solar here, and possibly new types like fusion and greater exploitation of tidal.

So not entirely clear where all this African power will go. What will probably happen is the Chinese will set up solar farms to process materials and then export them to China for value added. Some people will get rich off the back of that, and the rest will remain in poverty.

There is a fairly audacious project on the go at the moment to connect the UK to Morocco to enable us to use solar generated there, but I am not convinced it will happen. Money on interconnectors is better spent elsewhere to increase capacity within Europe.

Man-made climate change is completely different to anything experienced before.

IMO saying 'it has always been like this' is a another variety of climate denial.

You were too young to notice. I left school in the early eighties to record unemployment, the town I lived was literally falling apart due to deindustrialisation, the NHS was being destroyed, and we were told the ever widening hole in the ozone would burn us all to death in future. I was optimistic and although it was hard, built a life for myself.
Now I hear my peers that I grow up with talk about how amazing it was when we were young. It really was not.
Life will go on, make the best of it. Life is precious.

Think of all the mothers giving birth to baby boys in the 1890s, up and down the country in towns, villages and hamlets. A quiet way of life with futures mapped out. They had no idea what sort of hell their children would be engulfed in. A whole generation decimated. Look at the memorials in virtually every town and village. Each generation has it's challenges.

I know for certain I won't be here. I'll be feeding a tree and underground insects. The way things are going with wars and rumours of wars, the world may be a nuclear waste ground. For everyone's sake, I hope not. One things for sure, there will still be HUGE inequality within human-kind: those with obscene wealth, far more than all their life-time needs, and the bottom-of-the-pile, little worker ants and bees and those who are unable to be worker ants and bees will still be living from one pay cheque to the next.

You're right, @GasPanic, there are a lot of problems still to be ironed out - the issues relating to storage and transport, I'm confident will be sorted. It's already evident that China's trying to 'own' Africa and maintain a stranglehold on solar. The world's other powers - political and economic - are on that. There will be a lot of standoffs and dickwaving. It will get sorted (and China will get richer, but it's unlikely to hold all the cards for long).

Here in the UK we really need to stop being such wimps about wind & wave power. We don't get a huge amount of sun here, but importing all our energy isn't good for us and we get plenty of blustery weather! Nuclear power looks like a no-brainer though, again, we need to stop backing away from the issue and get working on safer implementations that we build ourselves, instead of handing control to foreign corporations whose families don't live here.

The new govt seems more alert to the threats & opportunities. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile, cleaner energy's a very fast-growing field for all your DC to consider. And don't be so gloomy! Cheap, plentiful energy changes everything!

“…would love to hear people's thoughts on what things might be like!”

My thoughts on the most important elements of the future are very much informed by Biblical prophecy- particularly Matthew 24, parts of the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Zechariah, Hosea and of course The Revelation given to the apostle John.

Revelation is a history, not a forecast.

It's not completely different, though. Humanity's survived momentous climate shifts in the past - at significant cost to life and always bringing far-reaching change, but our current advantage is that we know what's coming and have the means to prevent the loss of life. Whether you think we will depends on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist.

I don't even know why I'm on this thread, I'll be dead in 20 years ...

I am actually quite glad I'm at the other end of life.

If I was young again, I don't think I'd be having children myself

Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places.

Business as usual, then, @AgileGreenSeal 😏

That’s just the beginning though, you’ve left most of it out.

When did this happen in history? @Rummly

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4

I’m in my sixties and i definitely don't think this!
The advent of the internet means everything is reported in an instant now. Pictures of events we might not even have heard about previously are around the world in an instant. Some things are better, others not so much, but generally the world is an amazing place.

This! Plus you're older now and more aware of possible consequences.

This is what l think.

Im 60. DD was born 19 years ago. I don’t really see that much difference between them and now. Except the internet. But that’s it.

Life goes on. In whatever format. I don’t think much will change in 20 years. The threats now are no worse than 20/40/60 years ago. There’s just more easily accessible information.

I remember a history lesson at 15 being told there was no point doing o levels/ A levels as we’d all be dead in a nuclear war.The Cold War was a much scarier place than now.

Even with Russia behaving like a dick. Russias always been like that apart from a few years or Peristroika.