Miriam Quick writes about five numbers that will define the next hundred years. The population of the world will grow to 11.2 billion with an average age of 42 years, which means there will huge increase in the elderly. Last year the population rose by 83 million, the size of Germany. By 2050, 6.3 billion, that is 66% of people will be living in cities, with all the problems of providing utilities, transport and clean air. 47% of jobs in the US will be vulnerable to automation. There will be a 664% increase in the production of solar energy but fossil fuels will still constitute 86% of energy requirement. As if that is not bad enough, Matt McGrath writes that water resources are being depleted at an 'alarming' rate, to produce food, already. 43% of water for irrigation comes from underground aquifers which are not be replenished fast enough. Pakistan, India and the US export the largest amount of food grown with unsustainable water. Parts of India are chronically water deficient so that the government has to run trains to supply people with water for drinking and daily use. Following 2 years of severe drought the government started taking steps to conserve water by reducing waste through drip irrigation and to store rain water by digging ponds. Historian Ramachandra Guha hints that water disputes between states are being used by politicians as election ploy and should be handed over to experts who will consult farmers on how best to conserve this precious resource. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have been arguing about share of Cauvery River water for a century. Last year Jats in Haryana disrupted supply of water to Delhi to press for their claims for reservation in government jobs. All this is for the future. The world may not survive till 2050 or even 2030. North Korea has been carrying out missile tests creating fear in the US and Japan. The US has a huge base in Okinawa and another in Guam and does not rule out preemptive strikes against North Korean missile silos. Japan has also been talking about preemptive strikes. That will surely provoke a retaliation from China, the US will have to protect Japan and we could have attacks on the most populated centers of the world. Stephen Hawking predicts that Artificial Intelligence could wipe out the human race. Scientists keep talking about intelligence but that is not the danger. The danger is that AI is an algorithm, which must be logical, therefore it will not understand why human beings are illogical. We are being warned of the spread of bacteria resistant to all antibiotics but that is nothing compared to the danger of an entirely new kind of bacteria created by an amateur in his garage by using a home kit of Crispr. The good news is that wildlife will thrive if human beings disappear from earth, even if the world becomes radioactive, as has happened in Chernobyl. Let the meek inherit the earth.
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