Special chapter: World situation in 2031

Rapid population growth and industrial expansion are having a major impact on food, water, and energy supplies. During the early 2000s, there were six billion people on Earth.

By 2031, there are an additional two billion, most of them from poor countries. Humanity's footprint is such that it now requires the equivalent of two whole Earths to sustain itself in the long term. Farmland, freshwater, and natural resources are becoming scarcer by the day.

The extra one-third of human beings on the planet means that energy requirements have soared, at a time when crude oil supplies are in terminal decline. A series of conflicts has been unfolding in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, at times threatening to spill over into Europe. With America involved too, the world is teetering on the brink of a major global war.

There is the added issue of climate change, with CO2 levels reaching almost 450 parts per million. As a result, natural feedbacks are kicking in on a global scale. This is most apparent in the Arctic, where melting permafrost is now venting almost one gigatonne of carbon annually.

There are signs that a tipping point has been reached, which is manifesting itself in the form of runaway environmental degradation. Nature's ecosystems are changing at a speed and scale rarely witnessed in Earth's history.

This is also adding to food shortages, crop yields falling by up to one third in some regions and prices of some crops more than doubling, with devastating impacts on the world's poor.

The urban population, which stood at 3.5 billion in 2010, has now surged to almost 5 billion. Resource scarcity, economic and political factors, energy costs, and mounting environmental issues are forcing people into ever more crowded and high-density areas. Many cities are merging to form vast sprawling metropolises with hundreds of millions of people. In some nations, those living in urban areas make up over 90% of the population.

By 2031, urban areas occupy an additional 741,000 sq km globally, relative to 2012. This is equivalent to more than 20,000 new football fields being added to the global urban area every day for the first three decades of the 21st century. Almost $30 trillion has been spent during the last two decades on transportation, utilities, and other infrastructure. Some of the most substantial growth has been in China which boasts an urban population approaching one billion and has spent $100 billion annually just on its own projects.

Much of the Chinese coastline has been transformed into what is essentially a giant urban corridor. Turkey is another region that has witnessed phenomenal urban development.

All of this expansion is having a major impact on the surrounding environment. In addition to cities, new networks of road, rail, and utilities have been built, crisscrossing the landscape and cutting through major wildlife zones.

What were previously protected areas are now opening up for resource exploitation and food production.

Numerous species are reclassified as endangered during this period as a result of human encroachment, pollution, and habitat destruction.

The accelerating magnitude of these and other problems is leading to a rapid migration from traditional fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Advances in nanotechnology have resulted in greatly improved solar power. In some countries, such as Japan, photovoltaic materials are being added to almost every new building. Energy supplies in general are becoming more localized and efficient.

This transition is putting increasing strain on fossil fuel companies since the proven reserves of oil, coal and natural gas far exceed the decided "safe" limit for what can be burned. Because most reserves had already been factored into the market value of these organizations, they now face the prospect of huge financial loss. In response, many companies are fighting tooth and nail against further regulation.

Another issue which governments have to contend with during this time is the aging population, which has seen a doubling of retired persons since the year 2000. People are living longer, healthier lives.

With state pension budgets under increasing strain, the overall effect is a decreased income for senior citizens.

Retirement ages are increasing: in America, Asia, and most European countries, many employees are forced to work into their 70s.

Stress levels for the average person have continued to increase, as the world adapts to these various crises. When measured by years of life lost, depression has now overtaken heart disease to become the leading global disease burden. This includes both years lived in a state of poor health and years lost due to premature death. Principle causes of depression include debt worries, unemployment, crime, violence, war, environmental degradation, and disasters. The on-going economic stagnation around the world is a major contributing factor. However, progress is being made with destigmatizing mental illness.

By 2031, the amount of space junk in orbit has tripled, compared to 2011. Countless millions of fragments can now be found at various levels of orbit. A new generation of shielding for spacecraft and rockets is being developed, along with tougher and more durable spacesuits for astronauts. This includes the use of "self-healing" nanotechnology materials, though expenses are too high to outfit everything.

Larger chunks of debris have also been impacting on Earth itself more frequently. Though most land in the ocean (since the planet's surface is 70% covered by water), a few crash on land, necessitating early warning systems for people in the affected areas. The UNO is hiding most of these incidents to not cause panic for the population.

Increased regulation has begun to mitigate the growth of space debris, while better shielding and repair technology has reduced the frequency of damage. Increased computing power and tracking systems are also helping to predict the path of debris and instruct spacecraft to avoid the most dangerous areas. Options to physically move debris are also being deployed – including nets and harpoons fired from small satellites, along with ground-based lasers that can push junk into decaying orbits so it burns up in the atmosphere. Despite this, space junk remains an expensive problem for now.

A combination of increasingly severe droughts, aging infrastructure, and the depletion of underground aquifers is now endangering millions of people around the world. The on-going population growth described earlier is only exacerbating this, with global freshwater supplies continually stretched to their limits. This is forcing a rapid expansion of desalination technology.

A number of changes have occurred in shopping and driving habits. More and more people are living in cities, with fewer interested in driving and people in general spending less than before. Tech-savvy Millennials also known as Generation Y, in particular, had embraced new ways of living. The Internet had made it far easier to identify the cheapest products and to order items without having to be physically there in person. In earlier decades, this had mostly affected digital goods such as music, books, and videos, which could be obtained in a matter of seconds – but even clothing is now possible to download, thanks to the more and more widespread proliferation of 3D printing in the home.