It may be only a short while away, but the world in 2020 will be very different. Cosmos asked some of the world's leading scientists to forecast the future. Albert Einstein claimed he never thought about the future. "It comes soon enough," he would say. And you can see his point. What would have been the good of worrying about our destiny when it was not of our making? But life has changed since the great physicist's day. Sweeping changes of our own creation now beset our world: carbon emissions, soaring populations, cloning, rising extinction rates. We are changing our planet and its biosphere in ways that were once unimaginable. We are also developing lifesaving technologies that would have appeared equally incredible a few decades ago. Everywhere we witness change. But what will this bring and how will it affect our world? In this article, we address these questions in detail and explore the issues involved, concerns that will shape the existence and lifestyles of ourselves and our children. Some, notably those involved in medical research, look very hopeful. Others, especially those concerned with climate and biodiversity, look far less optimistic. Indeed, they appear downright disturbing. Overall, it is sobering stuff, though we should not be too downhearted about our prospects for life in 2020. As that other great guru of the 20th century, Charles M. Schulz, creator of the 'Peanuts' cartoon, once observed: "You needn't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia." Hot in the city: Whatever else we experience in 2020, the impact of climate change will be inescapable.
That's the clear message from virtually every scientist working in the field. Last century saw global atmospheric temperatures rising by 0.6¢ªC; in the next decade and a half, we can expect much the same. "Climate change will become particularly noticeable at the poles," says James Lovelock, the British scientist who developed the Gaia hypothesis, the idea that life itself makes existence tolerable on Earth.
