Halcyon In Future

The future of global power is likely to include more South-to-South development strategies, new issues in territory and sovereignty, and the potential for the collapse of states.

For example, imagine a world with a strong China reshaping Asia; India confidently extending its reach from Africa to Indonesia; Islam spreading its influence; a Europe replete with crises of legitimacy; sovereign city-states holding wealth and driving innovation; and private mercenary armies, religious radicals and humanitarian bodies playing by their own rules as they compete for hearts, minds and wallets.

A new study into food security called for urgent action to avert global hunger, claiming that the current system is unsustainable and will fail to end hunger unless radically redesigned.

India is set to become the world's fifth largest consumer market by 2025, providing significant opportunities for consumer business companies, says a new Deloitte study, 'Consumer 2020: Reading the signs'.

During the 2011 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, CNBC hosted a full-panel debate engaging business and political leaders in a televised discussion entitled 'The West Isn't Working', foreshadowing many of the economic problems that would hit the U..S and, in particular, Europe, during 2011.

If we wonder what the television-watching experience will be like 20 years from now, we can begin to sense how our lives are on the verge of shifting into a whole new gear.

Will watching TV still be a communal experience?  Will we be looking at a device, or will the image be projected?  Or will it appear on some sort of digital wallpaper?  Will it be portable?  Will it be 2D, 3D, or perhaps 4D or 5D? Will it be interactive, reactive, immersive, or participative?

A leading futurist addresses these and many more questions in "Eight Great Explosions in Video".

PwC's World in 2050 report examined, inter alia:

• The changing face of world economic power
• The impact of global growth on carbon emissions
• Looking beyond the BRICs
• The growth in emerging economies. 

Biotechnology has the power to improve human health, address environmental challenges, and change the way the world does business.  An OECD report, The Bioeconomy to 2030: Designing a Policy Agenda, examines the role of biotechnology in the global economy over the next two decades and outlines policies that could maximise its benefits.

By 2030, climate change will indirectly cause nearly one million deaths a year and inflict US$157 billion in damage, according to estimates presented at U.N. talks in December 2010.

In the next decade, we will share our offices, hospitals, schools, battlefields, nursing homes, and homes with a new breed of companion. A robot renaissance is underway, according to the IFTF.

The 2010 Global Hunger Index (GHI) showed some improvement over the 1990 GHI, falling by almost one-quarter.  Nonetheless, the index for hunger in the world remains at a level characterised as

By 2020, farm animals, at least in some Western countries, may enjoy more rights than ever before (source: Forbes, September 2010).

Longview Economics points out that several long-term cycles seem to be moving in a hostile direction for Western economies, with commodity prices rising, populations ageing and the debt spree unwinding.  The Economist feels that this is not necessarily bad news for financial markets next month, or even next year, but it does suggest that a very awkward decade lies ahead.

Sustainable Urban Mobility in 2020 argues that, to make the car of the future, we need to make the city of the future.

• Equality - there are signs of further growth in global inequality and the inability of international financial institutions to keep up with and forcefully counteract this trend.

• Animal Rights - consumer power and legislation are pushing cosmetics firms to devise new ways to assess products for safety - is this the beginning of the end of animal testing?

• Cooperation/Innovation/Technology - international cooperation between rich and poor countries will be key to unleashing the social and environmental change potential of advanced new technologies.

• Gender - violence against girls in and around educational institutions remains "pervasive," says a new report published for International Women's Day.

• Equality/Gender - despite a century of change, many women are still striving for true equality across the globe.

• Diversity/Science - scientists are to release the first draft of an Encyclopedia of Life detailing everything known about all living organisms, from the aardvark to the zebu.

• Food/Sustainability - livestock production is already responsible for almost one-fifth of global emissions, and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation predicts that global meat and dairy production will more than double in the next 40 years.