An analyst with the "Washington Post" newspaper for foreign affairs said that the year 2030 may be worse for the world than the year 2020, in which the Coronavirus pandemic appeared and had a negative impact on health and various areas of life.
In his analysis, Ishaan Tharoor, a writer covering foreign affairs, geopolitics and history, highlights three challenges that could impact our lives significantly in the coming years.
These challenges are:
Changing demographics
According to a study conducted by the United Nations in 2015, the world population is expected to reach about 8.5 billion people in 2030, which means a 15 percent increase in the size of humanity in just 15 years.
According to the study, India will have overtaken China to become the world's most populous country, while demographers predict a significant rise in population in sub-Saharan Africa, which will soon become home to the world's youngest society.
The number of megacities could double by the end of the decade, with nearly two-thirds of humanity living in urban centers.
According to another study funded by the National Institutes of Health, by 2030 more than one billion people on the planet will be over the age of 65, due to longer life expectancy and improved standards of living around the world. But this will result in a major political problem in various countries.
According to the study, governments will struggle to cover the costs of aged care and face a shrinking workforce amid a declining youth population.
As a result, governments, European in particular, may consider some policy solutions to these long-term challenges such as encouraging more immigration.
The escalating toll of climate change.
Earth science researchers at the University of Wisconsin have predicted that climate changes that occur on the planet will push the Earth's weather towards drought in 2030.
Two years ago, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that "without action to reduce carbon emissions over the next decade, the world will bring itself to the brink of climate catastrophe."
All the while, scientists expect an increasing number of extreme weather events to sweep the globe and destabilize vulnerable societies.
Erosion of democracies.
Human rights groups warn of the erosion of democracies by 2030, as new threats to freedom and privacy emerge as government electronic surveillance flourishes.
Harbor pointed out that the current polarization in the United States, represented by the refusal of Trump and his allies to accept the outcome of the November elections, could herald an even worse constitutional and democratic crisis in the coming years.
According to Tharoor, the EU's integration project could be stalled or collapsed, due to financial crises, populist passions and the collapse of democracy.
At the political level:
The world is heading towards multipolarity and there is no return to the unipolar world led by America. America will remain an influential power, but it will face the reality of diminishing power, and the same is true for the European Union.
The year 2030 AD will be the era of Asia and China, whose strength will surpass America and the European Union combined in terms of military spending, technical investments, gross national product and population.
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