Space tourism is becoming commonplace

The main players in the world are now: the USA, China, Europe, India, Japan, Russia and Brazil, with China and India exercising now a huge economic influence on global politics.

Since the beginning of the millennium, the frantic pace of globalisation has continued and the intercultural connection has now resulted in white Caucasians becoming a minority in the USA and elsewhere in the world.

One in five Europeans is now a Muslim.

Radical Islam and its resentment toward the West continues to produce Jihadists.

Large amounts of nuclear material had been missing from Russia since the early 1990s, and some of this inevitably fell into the wrong hands leaving a deep psychological scar on many people and fuel much paranoia and suspicion between nations.

Despite this tension and the fact that Israel has been the victim of a nuclear attack, progress has been achieved on certain key issues.

Thanks to advanced nanotechnology, across-the-board improvements in energy efficiency and power conservation, widespread deployment of solar, wind and wave power, as well as 4th generation nuclear power, carbon emissions have fallen substantially. However, the delayed reaction of carbon emissions from previous decades is continuing to affect weather patterns and climate stability.

Sea levels have risen over half a metre and are beginning to affect much of the world’s coastal real estate.

Space travel has taken a big leap forward.

Space tourism is becoming commonplace with middle-income citizens enjoying orbital flights. For the super-rich, lunar orbits and even brief excursions to the Moon’s surface are becoming possible. The first permanent scientific station is being planned for Mars.