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So far on this channel, we’ve only ever talked about current or past events.
Well not anymore, because this video is about the future.
We’ll be covering the major events that will happen in Asia leading up to the year 2050.
Of course, predicting such events is extremely difficult
but we can always give our best estimates based the information we currently have.
Just before we start, if you’re unsure of which countries are considered Asian (according to the international community)
feel free to check out our video series on Asian borders.
We will start from early 2018.
The PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea has just ended
a noteworthy event as we saw South Korea and North Korea march together under a united flag.
Now later on in the year, Indonesia will host the 2018 Asian Games
and JAXA, Japan’s Space Agency, jointly with the European Space Agency,
will launch BepiColombo, a mission to the planet Mercury
intended to be the most comprehensive on-location study of the planet ever performed.
The next year in 2019, Japanese Emperor Akihito will abdicate the throne
in favor of his eldest son Crown Prince Naruhito.
Abdication has not occured in Japan in over 200 years
Jordan, a country with a high dependency on foreign energy sources
will hope to resolve this very issue by opening its first nuclear power plant.
But with the desert nation lying in a seismically active region
there have been fears of a possible meltdown similar to the Japanese Fukushima nuclear disaster.
In 2020, Saudi Arabia will have completed construction on the Jeddah Tower at an unprecedented height of 1 km
which would make it the tallest building in the world.
In comparison, the current tallest building is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at a height of 828 meters.
A transcontinental bridge known as the Bridge of Horns is also scheduled for completion around this time
which would connect the Middle East to Africa, crossing the Red Sea, from Yemen to Djibouti.
But, given the ongoing Yemeni civil war, completion is looking more and more unlikely.
Perhaps a more realistic Red Sea alternative is the proposed bridge connecting Saudi Arabia to Egypt
which would provide the first direct road link between the Arab states of West Asia and North Africa.
Now, the first truly holographic TV displays may go mainstream in 2020
appearing first in Japan and South Korea before making its way to the rest of the world
and actually, as of 2016, Samsung had already filed a patent for it!
Mainstream or not, it does seem likely that at the very least, holographic displays
will be a big part of the Tokyo Summer Olympics to be held in this same year.
Having previously hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics
Tokyo will become the first Asian city to host the Olympics, twice.
The following year in 2021, the UAE’s Hope probe will reach Mars.
But that’s apparently only the start, because the UAE has also announced plans to set up
the first city on Mars by 2117.
Now, as far as launching humans into space, India will accomplish this feat
becoming only the fourth nation to do so, after Russia, US and China.
2022 will see Qatar host the FIFA world cup, the first for a Middle Eastern country.
Beijing will host The Winter Olympics making it the third consecutive Olympic Games held in Asia.
By this time, China will have also completed their first space station, with a design lifetime of ten years.
In 2023, Turkey will celebrate its 100th anniversary as an independent republic
and by 2024 India will surpass China to become the most populous nation on Earth
with over 1.4 billion people.
Come 2026, rising sea levels will wreak havoc on the island country of the Maldives
the smallest Asian country by land area and population
also the lowest lying country on the planet at just 1.5 meters above sea level.
Yes by this point, the Maldives would be well on its way to submersion.
A mass evacuation plan would subsequently be underway
with many citizens making their way to Sri Lanka, India and Australia.
2027 will see much of China reach an unparalleled level of urbanization.
With its growing economy, and the hundreds of cities with over a million inhabitants,
many of the world’s tallest buildings will now be found in China
we’re talking about Jeddah Tower-sized buildings at the very least.
In 2028, if all goes according to plan, China (now taking their ambitions a step further),
will have built the world’s largest particle accelerator in Beijing
about twice the circumference of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland.
Shanghai may also eclipse Wall Street in 2030, as the World’s leading financial centre,
but around this time China’s population will start seeing a slow decline.
This contrasted with India’s population which will see it hit 1.5 billion
making it the first political entity in history to reach that milestone.
2032 may see most of Southeast Asia unified by transport links
including the Sunda Strait Bridge connecting the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra
and the Malacca Strait Bridge connecting Sumatra with Western Malaysia
meaning Indonesia will now be connected to the Asian mainland.
This would greatly expand the economies of Indonesia and many other Southeast Asian countries.
Unfortunately though, Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, with a population of over 12 million
will face dire consequences due to rising sea levels and increased monsoon rains.
Add to the fact the city having been built on swampland and clay has actually been sinking for the last decades.
By 2034, Borneo’s rainforests - one of the oldest in the world, along with its stunning range of biodiversity
will be wiped out, at least at the current rate of deforestation
which is unparalleled in human history.
Many critically endangered species, will be close to extinction by this time including
one of the most intelligent of the great apes, the orangutan.
In the year 2035, Russia will become a global food superpower.
With climate change resulting in lower crop yields in many parts of the world
and with the world’s population nearing 9 billion, demand for crop production will be at an all time high.
With the melting permafrost and retreating polar icecap
vast tracts of land will have opened up by this time in North Asia
turning the once remote, harsh, barren landscape of Siberia into endless stretches of arable land
that is land suitable for farming and for growing crops.
Also Japan may be connected to the mainland for the very first time with the completion of a new tunnel
Running from the Northern Japanese Island of Hokkaido to the Russian island of Sakhalin
with a smaller tunnel connecting Sakhalin to the mainland
Along with the long-existing Seikan Tunnel, all four of the main Japanese islands
would now be connected to Russia.
2036 will see China’s first astronauts on the moon, the first Asian country to do so,
and only the second ever after the US in 1969.
Yes that’s a whopping 67 years apart
the US’ Apollo program quite the technological anomaly here.
By 2038, capital punishment across the globe will have greatly declined in use
particularly in Asia and The Middle East, though with a few notable exceptions.
As we arrive at 2040, India’s economy will now be rivaling the US and China’s.
A second tunnel connecting Japan to mainland Asia will possibly be completed
but this time linking the southern Japanese island of Kyushu to South Korea.
In around 2041, also on the island of Kyushu, Japan will experience a major volcanic eruption,
its largest since 1914.
Casualties will be at minimum however, thanks to technological advancements and extensive precautionary measures.
2045 will see a substantial decline in homoesexual discrimination particularly in the Middle East.
The Indian Elephant, native to mainland Asia, will be on the brink of extinction.
Indonesia will celebrate its 100th anniversary of independence.
And it will also be the 100th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
the only time nuclear weapons were used in the history of warfare…
assuming nothing drastic happens in this 27 years span.
Regardless though, Japan’s population will fall below a 100 million by 2046
but as part of its ongoing, slow decline and fundamentally irreversible low birth rate.
By now, entire Japanese communities, mainly in the rural areas, will have disappeared in its entirety.
In 2047, Pakistan and India will celebrate the 100th anniversary of their independence.
The ‘One country, two systems’ agreement for Hong Kong will expire
which would be the end of Beijing’s 50-year promise to maintain the city’s existing way of life
after the British handover in 1997.
Israel will celebrate the 100th anniversary of their independence in 2048.
And North Korea will celebrate the 100th anniversary of their founding
although whether they’ll exist in their current form by this year is questionable to some.
In 2049, the ‘One country, two systems’ agreement (this time) for Macau will expire
the Dead sea, located between Israel and Jordan will have almost vanished
the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster will be cleared up, having taken approximately 35 years
and costing tens of billions of dollars.
And finally, we arrive at 2050.
The global population is getting close to 10 billion, with Asia by far making up the majority.
India’s population will finally start declining.
We’d be in the midst of the biggest refugee crisis in history in Southeast Asia
with rising sea levels forcing people inland.
The Everest region will have its glacier volume declined by half.
Robots will be commonplace, especially in Japan and Korea where issues relating to population decline
will be balanced out by a growing robot population.
And Asia will be connected to almost every part of the world by a Transglobal Highway,
which will likely include this crossing - the Bering Strait Bridge connecting Asia to North America
which means by 2050 you may be able to drive from Tokyo, Jakarta, Dubai or Beijing
to New York or California.
If you want to learn more about the Transglobal Highway as it relates to America
as well future events relating to that part of the world
you can check out Second Thought’s video by clicking here!
I hope you enjoyed this topic, please leave a comment below, and for more Asiany videos,
don’t forget to subscribe and click that little bell button to be part of our notification squad.
Next video will be Asian Border part 3, I’ll see you there, thanks for watching
and I’m out.