The New World

Ever wondered how the world would be after 20 years? This is how we view the world in the next twenty years:

In 2015, the United Nation’s millennium goals which includes ending poverty and hunger, education, gender equality, maternal and children’s health, fighting known diseases, environmental continuity, and global partnership for development are not met. Though it was noted that the growth of each elements in the millennium goals increased, it did not actually made an impact because of the fast rise of population throughout the world. The United Nations continued to create long term strategies especially focusing on the environmental and health sustainability. Different leaders from all over the world gathered to reinvent their strategies in a more direct and attainable manner. They invested more money to focus on research and development regarding sustainable mediums for providing health care, cure for diseases, and environmental preservation. But still, the progress was still relatively slow.

            According to studies, by the end of the century, the sea levels are expected to rise between seven and twenty-three inches by the end of the century. But so far in 2016, sea levels have already increased by two inches which affected land masses that are below sea level such as some part in New York City, coastal areas in the South America region, and Islands near the Pacific Ocean. The following year, strong weather calamities struck different countries including United States, Southeast Asia, majority of Europe and parts of India. Massive storm and cyclones including tornadoes hit the said areas which paralyzed the communication and economic of the world. Millions of people have died and many lost their properties. The United Nations and other Non-government organizations found it hard to allocate the resources needed to provide the basic necessities for the affected victims because the demand was too high and that the calamities happened almost consequently in a given time.  Many have died because of illness and hunger especially in developing countries which were not addressed immediately due to lack of resources. In the same year, earthquakes ranging from 8 to 9.4 magnitudes were recorded in different provinces in China. The greatest devastation is the nuclear reactors that were in the earthquake affected areas used for energy were destroyed and created multiple catastrophic effects on people and livelihood in the area. Aside from the millions that were killed in the earthquake, the radioactive contamination that went in the atmosphere had spread throughout mainland China causing severe damage to the health of people and of animals. The damages and its effects even surpassed the Chernobyl disaster. It was in this year that the U.N. proclaimed it as the “year of the consequences”. There were no electricity for some parts of the world, the Internet was badly disabled, businesses were mostly closed, and the economic area of the world has stopped.

            Immediately after recovering from the calamities and catastrophic events (2019), leaders from all over the world gathered to address the issues they now face, and the future that would most likely be more horrible to come. In a world with very diverse culture and of different beliefs and standpoints, how on earth will they be able to address the problems that they all face?

In the year 2020, each country is given the task to look within their territories on how they could address the revised UN millennium goals; focusing on environmental sustainability, safety, and proper allocation of resources within the borders of their nation. It is good to start the change if the change will happen within the territory of people with the same culture and beliefs before embarking on a larger scale. People in Southeast Asian nations have found that they could invest more on geothermal and solar energies to provide sustainable and cleaner source of energy for their countries. The people in the Philippines and also in Indonesia have passed several laws to protect the remaining forestry in their archipelagoes which was implemented by their government and was highly supported by the citizens. China has also embarked on clarifying their own goals and vision as a country. Is money and power their sole vision as a country? Or does the people and the environment preservation part of their goals? They balanced each factor and objectively addressed their concerns within the country. They shut down most of their nuclear reactors which they have learned from past experiences to contain very hazardous consequences. Instead, they focused also on clean sources of energy and made stricter quality control on their industrial facilities which accounts most of their contribution to pollution. The United States and other developed nations also saw the need to examine their goals and vision as a country which was seen on how they changed their policies within their jurisdiction. The people also understood the past events that happened and also saw the need to change their lifestyle which led to the interaction and cooperation between the government and the people.

 

As the year of 2026 is about to end, almost all of the nations around the world had started to change their personal goals and visions which affected the interaction between each nations. Countries have now begun to be open themselves with each other. Gone are the days of the said Globalization which was said to bring nations together and open all borders but in fact resulted in the bigger gap between the rich and poor countries. It is because all of the countries have seen their improvement as a nation, and that they have also noted the change and improvement of other nations as well. Their perceptions towards other nations have changed dramatically over time and it helped them see the positive side of each other. North Korea saw the improvement and opened themselves to the world. Communism was no longer part of a political structure and it was no longer seen in the face of the earth. Legal and fair trade from countries in Africa were supported by countries in the world where they had the chance to increase their economic growth and at the same time, provide necessary funds to protect the people and the environment in their land. The awareness of each nation towards the world and reality now became more objective and that it was not only good for the growth of their nation but also to the world as well.

Years passed by, and the situation between countries are better than ever. Yes, the countries had a hard time changing their bad habits; opening up to the world; not to mention the calamities that affected each nation has not been very helpful to them. The climate still hasn’t improved yet and the effects of global warming, pollution, and other manmade causes are still evident in the world which continues to bring harmful consequences to the people. Joint venture of all nations to battle against their past mistakes and the preservation of scarce resources are now being made into consideration. In the year 2028, the United Nations and the regional organizations of the world took the initiative to launch different channels of communication through nations addressing the different problems they have to face in the near future and how to control it from causing catastrophic effects. Since over the years, the nations have been opened up to the world, it was safe to say that it was now easier for the international organizations to provide the lead in showing all the countries how to have the same vision in order to control the damages and effects of global warming, pollution, and other concerns that will affect the world. The countries saw the need to have the same mindset with others so that they all could benefit from the cooperation of one another. They now knew how it would be attainable to control the growth of global warming and increase the development of all the nations while still considering its people and the environment if they had the same vision and try to work together as one. By the end of the year, countries have signed allegiance to fully cooperate with the United Nation’s goals as well as the goals of the regional organizations. Each country also pledge a part of their income which will be used to fund the research and development of the UN to address its goals. Because of the team learning of all the nations and with high participation to address the problems, the international organization received more power to use it for the greater good of the nations. The nations also respected the decision made by UN because they have the built the trust over the years of communication and interaction. Each nation’s voices were heard in the assembly which is to learn and create a better understanding of what is happening in our reality. Each country contributed to the development of their common goals. China volunteered to be the manpower and provide the necessary resources for producing quality drugs that the scientists from Europe have discovered in curing known diseases. Meanwhile United States and Switzerland continues to partner in discovering solar energy panels that could store up to 100 times the current heat energy it could absorb to minimize the space. Construction firms all over the world share their knowledge, resources, and expertise to discover and continue to find ways to build houses that would withstand climate change in different areas. Countries in Africa is also taking the initiative to protect their eco-system and at the same time harness natural resources for people’s consumption. They have also found ways to generate enough commodities to supply the locals with enough food, shelter, and clothing. Geothermal energies were also used widely throughout the world replacing nuclear reactors in developed countries.

With the steps that the countries have made to learn from the mistakes of their past, the illusion that someone is in charge and that the nations with less power have no say to the world, and that they cannot cooperate as one to address their common goal, it was all proven wrong. The integration of the four disciplines which helped the countries grow first on themselves; then opening up to others; and now working as one for their own survival and growth, helped them achieve the fifth discipline which is the systems thinking. The year 2032 has finally come and that they are now ready to think as a system after the long twenty years of preparation and building of nations to become as one. Patience is always the key. Although we may have been late to start what must have been started decades ago, the nations have learned from it and eventually applied it to reality. It will still be a long road to control the damages that have been done to our environment. And the effects might be harsher than before even if the countries have started to change. Change is inevitable, and the only way to survive the changes is that we should learn how to adapt to it and address problems not for a short period of time, but address them through a long term and continuous process. Just what the countries did for the past twenty years. Who knows, maybe they’ve just prolonged another ice age for future generations to continue.

In line with Globalization, our story regarding the next twenty years of our world coincides with its basic purpose; to remove the borders of each territory and create cooperation amongst the different countries in the world. Globalization is in fact detrimental to both the success and fail of all the nations in the world with regards to its environment and climate change. With the use of Globalization, every nation can either create a change to cooperate as one, slow down global warming and conserve our environment or either hasten it up and destroy our home planet. Each of us know the consequences of our actions; we just don’t know where and when it will hit us back. That is why the nations should know how to effectively use Globalization and its components in order to make a great difference in today’s alarming situations.