I have turned 98 and realize I haven’t long to live. It comes as a shock but I have had an amazing life. I now have time to take stock and wonder what the future will bring for our

grandchildren.

          The biggest problem with the world today is too many people. Numbers have been climbing fast. So what will the future trends show?

          When I left school in 1942 there were less than two billion people in the world. Today we have over eight billion.

          Future wars will kill off large numbers, as they are doing today. Climatic events such as cyclones and earthquakes will slow growth down.

          Richer, well-educated countries will have smaller families but poorer counties will still have large families.  Many people from the poorer, less educated countries, will flood overseas to seek food, employment, and opportunities in richer countries.

          As a planet we should be able to grow enough food – it’s the distribution and the waste that are the major problems.

          Farms will get bigger and stock numbers will decline as diet patterns change to more plant-protein foods. Fish farming will increase and should be a good investment area.

          Safe drinking water will become a rarer resource unless we can find cheap ways to desalt and polish seawater 

          We need to stop polluting our oceans. Many cities, towns, and ships still dump their wastes into the sea.

          Cars are now using electricity for fuel but this may not last. Perhaps the next wave of motoring will be powered by hydrogen. When this comes about we could soon be using water for fuel.

               Housing will change as more houses will be built in large factories and erected on-site.  Most people will live in large apartment buildings in central cities.

          More electricity will be generated by wind and wave power. House roofs have a great potential to be used to make warm water for washing as well as generation of electricity but we need a new form of covering – perhaps a three-layer metal and plastic roofing material.

          I wonder what we will be drinking in the future. I doubt if it will be tea and coffee. There must be many other plants we should be experimenting with.

          We should all take an interest in the future – that’s where you and your family will spend the rest of your lives.

Geoffrey Moss(mossassociates.co.nz)

“Too many people try to predict their future based on past experiences”

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