General:
Looking at today’s world unfolding, tomorrow’s young people will face challenges posed by lack of affordable housing, AI performing entry level and other professional jobs and dynamic pricing of goods, entertainment, travel and even remuneration.
People Change:
According to the Chinese ministry of education, enrolments in China’s kindergartens dropped by 12 million children between 2020 and 2024, from a peak of 48 million leading to the number of kindergartens, serving Chinese children aged 3-5, falling by 41,500 from a high of nearly 295,000 in 2021.
Scientists have used a new AI platform as part of uncovering biological changes in gut bacteria, immune responses and metabolism that are potential flags for hard-to-diagnose diseases of extreme tiredness such as myalgic encephaomyelitis and long Covid.
IMF demographic data shows that Africa’s share of global births has increased from 10% in 1950 to 30% now and will reach 40% at which time Africa will be the only continent experiencing population increases.
Food and Water:
According to Our World in Data, two billion people worldwide don’t have safe drinking water.
Climate Change and the Environment:
Major flooding caused deaths in China, India and Texas. The Great Barrier Reef suffered its biggest annual drop in live coral since the 1980’s after devastating coral bleaching. The South Australian algal bloom catastrophe caused mass deaths among hundreds of marine species.
Major fires have been recorded in Canada, California, France and Italy. June in Western Europe was the hottest on record.
A study by the Waterkeeper Alliance Landmark shows that American sewage sludge and wastewater plants are significant sources of Pfas pollution.
Researchers at Deep Science Ventures calculate that mankind has created more than 100 million chemicals not found in nature, with somewhere between 40,000 and 350,000 in commercial use and production.
Low Cost Renewable Energy:
The IEA predicts that Chinese oil consumption will peak in 2027.
Autonomous Electric Vehicles:
BNEF forecasts that global passenger EV sales will be nearly 22 million cars in 2025, an increase of 25% on 2024 and more than 20% of total vehicle, with 65% sold in China, 17% in Europe and 7% in the USA.
Mass Data Mining and Storage:
Gartner predicts a total of $US 475 billion will be spent on data centres this year, an increase of 42% on 2024, with McKinsey predicting US$ 5.2 trillion invested by 2030 mainly in the UAE and USA. The data centres comprise stacks of computers incorporating Nvidia’s chips which consume at least 10 times as much power as regular web servers and give off so much heat that air conditioning is not enough to cool them. According to LBNL, hyperscale and colocation sites in America consumed 55 billion litres of water in 2023.
