Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde
Power/fossil fuels is just one facet of the challenges we're going to have to overcome. Overpopulation, food sources, food COST (i predict that it will skyrocket within the next 50 years as we continue to overconsume), chemicals in the environment...
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Fifty years is pushing the envelope a bit much, I can't really fathom the world going more than 100 years between global conflicts, especially as China and India come on board with their Americanized consumerism. Right now global powers are already playing "who's my little buddy?" with every second and third world nation on the planet to secure resource rights for the coming decades.
The real X-factor is science. I fully believe that science can essentially overcome nearly any "problem" posed to humanity given enough incentive. Shit, high school kids are breeding bacteria that break down plastics and chemical treatments that make the metal skeleton for large stone works (bridges, highways, etc.) nearly rust-proof. Basically the first country to implement a space elevator and a way to effectively shield radiation outside of the Earth's magnetic field will have free reign of the Solar System and all its resources.
Even if we don't escape the planet, we'll soon enough be in a position where mining old garbage dumps for resources will become a lucrative endeavor.
I could see it going either way.