2017: China creates world's largest "mega-city" with 43 million residents

China's new mega-city

Chinese city-planners put forward a plan to merge the 9 cities within the Pearl River Delta zone. By combining these cities, China will create the world’s largest mega-city (or would giga-city be a better name?), creating a metropolis with a population of 42 million people. The newly created city will be covering part of China’s manufacturing zone and stretches out from Guangzhou to Shenzhen. China's mega-city scheme will create a 16,000 square mile of urbanized areawhich is roughly 26 times larger than greater London. The new city will also include Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Huizhou and Zhaoqing. At the moment (2013) the world largest mega-city is Greater Tokyo with a population of over 34 million people.

Bohai Economic Rim

The southern conglomeration hopes to contest the competitive advantages of growing urban areas around Beijing and Shanghai. China also plans to move even more greater numbers into cities, creating city zones with 50 to 100 million residents + "small" city-clusters with populations of 10 to 25 million. The northern areas around Beijing and Tianjin will be ringed with networks of high speed railways creating a super urban area known as Bohai Economic Rim with a population of 260 million people.

2017: Tigers are going extinct

The Malaysian tiger
only 63 left in the wild

During the second half of the 1900's the tiger population dramatically plunged by over 95% on global scale. By the 1970's, tigers disappeared from central Asia, by the 1980's from Java and by the 1990'ss from South China. Three of the nine sub-species,Bali-tigers, Javan-tigers and Caspian-tigers were extinct as early as the 1980's.

Tiger counts continued to decline into the first decade of the 21st century. By 2010, geologists estimated that India, which once was a stronghold for tigers, had less than 800 wild tigers left, while some of the rarer sub-species had only less then 30 on the counting-balance. Poaching remained a serious problem, with tiger skins fetching up to 15,000 Euro's in China. Tiger-habitat loss was accelerating tremendously, with farmers encroaching into tigers' territory and forests being cleared to make room for palm oil plantations.

The Cambodian tiger
only 49 left in the wild

Summits between conservation groups and the few countries where tigers remained showed to be  little effective, and were more about politicians eager to be seen doing something, rather than tackling the issues on the ground. Within a few years, there are no longer any viable breeding populations of tigers, setting them on the path to irreversible extinction  Once the most recognizable and popular of the world's dominant species, this animal will soon go extinct just like the dodo, with only small numbers remaining in zoos and private posession.

World's economy in 2016...it's getting worse!

Let's look ahead some three years from now, and we'll find out that the sluggish economic situation isn't going to get any better soon... The economic crisis that began in 2007 doesn't show much sign of ending in the upcoming years. The US debt continues to increase massively, reaching almost 20 trillion dollars, and the US credit rating as well has been hit hard and had to be further downgraded by all rating agencies. In a truly unprecedented move, the dollar begins to lose its long-held status as the global reserve currency while a basket of other currencies is in the process of replacing it. America will be increasingly paralyzed by political deadlocks, with an growing polarized and divided society.

The contagion currently affecting much of Europe (originally confined to Greece, Portugal and Spain), has spread to other parts of the European continent, leading to the collapse of banks, large corporations. Bailout after bailout has failed to provide an adequate long term solution. Unemployment rates climb sky-high, while poor consumer spending means governments have no option then to deal with much lower tax revenues. Oil and food prices continue to rise and diamonds as well as gold and, silver and other precious metals have reached unprecedented highs. Meanwhile, China is facing its own problems including the fallout of a massive real estate bubble. There are continued riots and protests throughout the world. The tensions in the Middle-East, South-Western Asia and Africa have worsened and locals power-struggles and war remains the daily news. Volatile market conditions and a number of frightening changes in society at large. Investor confidence is being eroded, with a growing reluctance to take risks. As debts worsen, there is no sign of a light at the end of the tunnel for most of the world. So are there places with positive news? East-Asia and South-East Asia will see a very strong growth. Economically as well as socially. Countries like South-Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines will slowly move towards a top-ranking of the world's best performing economies. Latin-America remains a mixed bag, which some countries out-performing both the US and Europe (such as Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela) and others struggling to keep the peace and harmony (Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua). Three years ahead...whereever you are: good luck!

Filed under: Future world economy forecast - Economic crisis - Asia economy - Europe economic crisis - Future pronóstico economía mundial - crisis económica - la economía de Asia - crisis económica, Europa - 미래의 세계 경제 전망 - 경제 위기 - 아시아 경제 - 유럽 경제 위기 - 未来世界经济的预测 - 经济危机 - 亚洲经济 - 欧洲经济危机 - 未來世界經濟的預測 - 經濟危機 - 亞洲經濟 - 歐洲經濟危機 - Futuro previsão economia mundial - Crise econômica - A economia da Ásia - A crise econômica da Europa - Masa Depan perkiraan ekonomi dunia - Krisis ekonomi - Asia ekonomi - krisis ekonomi Eropa - ទស្សទាយថាសេដ្ឋកិច្ចពិភពលោកនាពេលអនាគត - វិបត្តិសដ្ឋកិច្ច - សេដ្ឋកិច្ចអាស៊ី - អ៊ឺរ៉ុបមានវិបត្តិសដ្ឋកិច្ច - Künftige Weltwirtschaft Prognose - Wirtschaftskrise - Asien Wirtschaft - Europa Wirtschaftskrise - 今後の世界経済の見通し - 経済危機 - アジア経済 - ヨーロッパ経済危機 - Les prévisions de l'économie mondiale - la crise économique - économie d'Asie - la crise économique en Europe - Будущие прогноз мировой экономики - Экономический кризис - экономика Азия - Европа экономического кризиса - Futuro previsioni economia mondiale - Crisi economica - economia Asia - crisi economica l'Europa - Μελλοντικές προβλέψεις παγκόσμια οικονομία - Οικονομική κρίση - Ασία οικονομία - Η Ευρώπη οικονομική κρίση

The Panama-canal, linking the Pacific ocean and the Atlantic ocean

A container-ship navigating through
the Panama Canal

The Panama Canal which is going to fully join the Atlantic ocean with the Pacific Ocean and is a very big thing for international maritime business: trading companies, shipping companies, navy of many different countries, yachting fanatics... The capacity of the Panama-canal will be more then doubled in 2014 with the completion of a very large expansion project. Following eight years of excavation, a 3rd set of locks is  added. In 2011, 42% of shipping traffic was unable to pass-through the Panama canal due to size and volume of ships that did go through. Global demand demanded the construction of this new, highly technologically designed passage-way.

Solar Impulse, the first airplane to circle the earth on solar power

The fully solar-powered Solar Impulse
plane will start operations in 2014

The Solar Impulse, a Swiss long-range solar powered airplane, developed by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will be the first fully solar powered airplane tot circle the earth in 2014. Solar Impulse has a total wingspan of a large airliner plane, but measures in weight no more than a medium-sized passenger car. It uses twelve-thousand solar cells on the 64-meter spanned wings to charge its ultra-efficient batteries, providing energy for the 10-horsepower electric engines that drive the propellers  The average speed of the Solar Impulse airplane is 70 km/h with a maximum altitude of 8,500 meters.