Twenty-First Century and Beyond:
Alfred McCoy's latest book makes some predictions some of which will likely come to pass:
"2024 China finishes high-speed rail network with 24,000 miles of track.
"2027 Beijing's investment in Belt and Road reaches $1.3 trillion.
"2030 China's economic output reaches $36 trillion, 40 percent larger than the US
"2034 For the first time in US history, people over 65 outnumber children under 18.
"2040 Average world temperature reaches 1.5 degree C above pre-industrial level
"2049 US social welfare spending on elderly reaches 50% of federal budget.
"2050 CO^2 levels reach 550 ppm and rising sea levels flood Shanghai, Saigon, Mumbai, and Bangkok."
These predictions appear in McCoy's latest book which I can't link to; however, his fifty year track record indicates he should be taken seriously.
TO GOVERN THE GLOBE | Kirkus Reviews
"'In the four thousand years since the first empire appeared,' writes McCoy, the chair of the history department at the University of Wisconsin, 'the world has witnessed a continuous succession of some 200 [empires], of which 70 were large or lasting.'
"Granted that many of those empires have faded into historical limbo, that’s an impressive record of political organization.
"One plank on which empires found their power is not often considered: energy and its flows and control.
"In this regard, McCoy considers the transfer of world dominion from Great Britain to the U.S. in the 20th century."
