From Bertelsmann Future Challenges
Demographic change strengthens the dynamics of global change. The aging of the population is no longer just a national issue, it also has an international component. In 2050 there will be about 9 billion people on the planet earth, over half of whom will live in Asia. They will want the same economic growth the western hemisphere has enjoyed over the last 200 years. But how does this correlate with climate change? At first sight, it seems as if they have little in common. Yet if the climate grows hotter in the southern parts of the world, for example in Africa, the fast-growing population in these countries might want to take refuge in more northerly parts of the world. So, in the end, could climate change heat up migration too? How will it be possible to feed the global population when even today natural resources are becoming depleted. Demographic change thus deepens the gap between rich and poor, north and south, the western world and Asia, the Christian and the Islamic world, between globalization's winners and losers. Accordingly, demographic developments greatly fuel global change, more so even than these other megatrends ever could.
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Metastudy
Since its founding, the Bertelsmann Foundation has worked to define and develop solutions to future challenges. The Foundation is currently engaged in an innovative project to explore large-scale trends in society from 2020 to 2100. This project is called the Megatrend Meta-Analysis (MeMA).
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