2050  

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Predicted and scheduled events

• In July 2008, the G7 agreed to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by half in 2050.
• In November 2006, Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, “warned of a global collapse of all species being fished, if fishing continues at its current pace.”
• In March 2006, Professor Gerry Gilmore predicted that ground-based astronomy would become impossible by this year because of pollution from aircraft exhaust trails and climate change.
• Arnulf Jaeger-Walden of the European commission's Institute for Energy believes that solar power from North Africa can provide 100 GW to the entire continent of Europe.
• Under a plan announced in July 2016, New Zealand aims to eradicate all non-native rats, opossums, and weasels by this year.
• A time capsule in Rachel, Nevada is set to be opened in this year.

World population

• In November 2001, the United Nations Population Fund reported that the world population is projected to be 9.3 billion in 2050 from 6.1 billion then with most of the increase in developing countries even as the population of industrialized countries will "remain stable". This figure was revised to 9.1 billion in 2005 and 9.2 billion in 2007. In 2008, the United States Census Bureau projected a world population of 9.5 billion.
• Another study done by the European Commission, community research stated that the world population is expected to grow at a decreasing rate to 8.9 billion in 2050 and after 2030, the population in several countries including those in Europe and China will decrease. Stabilization in the population will happen in the second half of the century.
• It is calculated there will be 601,000 centenarians (people at least a hundred years old - born before 1950) in the United States by 2050.
• "The population continues to grow but at a slower pace", summarizes the demographer Thomas Buettner, author of UN report on "World population projections (1950-2050)", presented Thursday, February 24, 2005. According to this study, 9.075 billion people will inhabit Earth in 2050, against 7 billion today.
• This increase amounts to adding to the current world population the combined populations of China and India, stresses the population division of the United Nations.
• The general trend is, however, a slowdown in population growth compared to gains of twenty to fifty years, this tends to confirm a gradual stabilization of the overall population.
• Not surprisingly, population growth will be highest in poor countries already struggling to provide food security for its people. "Births planning and fertility decline explain this difference", stresses the UN report.
• The United Nations predicts that 2 out of every 9 people in the world will be 60 years or older. World life expectancy at birth is also expected to exceed 76 years.

In fiction

• 21st century in fiction