This page is a timeline of milestone scenarios based upon current trends in any area of consideration. I will add to it as I run across significant information from the web, magazines, books, etc., and invite you to email me with similar trend scenarios and/or resources for such scenarios, or existing timelines similar to this one. Please include the source and date of the information, and a link for further information if possible.

> commenced on 2/18/01 <

(a bare bones beginning, but you'll get the idea)

 

By 2005...

 

By 2010...

 

By 2015...

 

By 2020...

... As little as 5 percent of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil may remain
as pristine forest
, according to a study published in the journal Science. The researchers say that Brazil's plan to invest $40 billion on development projects in the Amazon Basin will overwhelm conservation efforts. The 1.3 million-square-mile Amazon forest makes up 40 percent of the Earth's remaining tropical rainforest, but the researchers fear that logging, oil exploration, roads, and new homes will devastate the area. >>South Africa Independent, Steve Conner, 19 Jan 2000

... Machines will be equal partners to humans with sufficient intelligence to monitor trends on their own. >> Ray Kurzweil, Time Magazine, December 4, 2000

By 2025...

 

By 2030...

... Machines will be as intelligent as humans, with information processing capacity exceeding that of human brain by factor of thousands. >> Ray Kurzweil, Time Magazine, December 4, 2000

By 2035...

 

By 2040...

 

By 2045...

 

By 2050...

... World population of humans will be nearly double that of the year 2000. Estimates range from 9 to 11 billion.

By 2055...

 

By 2060...

 

By 2065...

 

By 2070...

 

By 2075...

 

By 2080...

 

By 2085...

 

By 2090...

 

By 2095...

 

By 2100...

... The average world temperature could rise between 2.5 and 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a report released today in Shanghai by the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This estimate is significantly higher than the 1.8- to 6.3-degree rise predicted by the IPCC in 1995. The Shanghai report, the third such assessment by the IPCC, asserts more strongly than in the past that humans have "contributed substantially" to the warming of the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. >> Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, Associated Press, Joe McDonald, 22 Jan 2001 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/
detail/0,1136,36000000000163966,00.html

 

copyright©2001 Marshall Lefferts
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