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The 21st century is the present century of the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2001 and will last to December 31, 2100, though common usage believes January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2099 to hold this distinction. Technologically it is different from the 20th Century mostly by changes brought about by the Digital Revolution of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
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Politics
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Science and technology
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Conflicts and civil unrest
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Worldwide deaths from war and terror attacks
U.S. Invasion in Iraq, most estimates claim 40,000 – 50,000 Iraqi and 3,000 coalition deaths. In 2004, The Lancet estimated that about "98,000 more deaths than expected (8000–194,000) happened after the invasion." *
March 11, 2004 suicide terrorist attacks shake several train stations on Spain's capital Madrid, killing 190 people and injuring 1,247.
July 7, 2005 suicide terrorist attacks shake London transport system killing 52 people and injuring 700.
Furthermore, there are several wars and dictatorships continuing from the 20th century. In most cases, the death toll is unclear.
See also *.
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Natural disasters
Up to 50,000 people were killed in France, Italy, and other European countries in the summer of 2003 due to a prolonged heat wave coinciding with a shortage of medical and nursing staff.
Hurricane Stan hit Mexico along the Gulf of Campeche in October 2005 and moved into Guatemala. Hurricane Stan combined with powerful storms already occurring in the region and contributed to the deaths of 1,620 people. It is unclear how many deaths are due directly to Stan and how many from the already existing storms, or perhaps a combination of the two.
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Sports
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Issues and concerns
Some of the things that have dominated discussion and debate so far in this century include:
Globalization. Advances in telecommunications and transportation, the expansion of capitalism and democracy, and free trade agreements have resulted in unprecedented global economic and cultural integration. This has caused (and is continuing to cause) huge economic and cultural shifts which have been the subject of considerable controversy. Gladly, the gradual shift towards greener capitalism, aka ethicism, promises to make good the globalization movement, and bring more unity to an often too divided world. It is summised * that gradual ethical steps in three main areas (animals and the environment, employees, and consumers), are what will turn the tide in a favourable direction. The three stakeholders responsible for these changes are: governance, industry, and consumers.
Overpopulation. The United Nations estimates that world population will reach 9.1 billion by mid-century. Such growth raises questions of ecological sustainability and creates many economic and political disruptions. In response, many countries have adopted policies which either force or encourage their citizens to have fewer children, and others have limited immigration. Considerable debate exists over what the ultimate carrying capacity of the planet may be; whether or not population growth containment policies are necessary; to what degree growth can safely occur thanks to increased economic and ecological efficiency; and how markets should accommodate demographic shifts. Evidence forms that developed countries (such as Japan) suffer population implosion, and the population debate is strongly tied with poverty.
Poverty. Poverty remains the root cause of many of the world's other ills, including famine, disease, and insufficient education. Poverty contains many self-reinforcing elements (for instance, poverty can make education an unaffordable luxury, which tends to result in continuing poverty) that various aid groups hope to rectify in this century.
War and terrorism. Active conflicts continue around the world, including civil wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the largest war since World war II), Chechnya, Côte d'Ivoire, Somalia, Senegal, Colombia, and Sudan (mainly in Darfur). The 9/11 terrorist attacks triggered invasions of Afghanistan and partially and controversially Iraq. The War on Terrorism has seen controversies over civil liberties, accusations of torture, continued terrorist attacks and ongoing instability, violence, and military occupation. Violence continues in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Considerable concern remains about nuclear proliferation, especially in Iran and North Korea, and the availability of weapons of mass destruction to rogue groups.
Global warming. The overwhelming majority of climate scientists think that the earth is currently undergoing significant anthropogenic (human-induced) global warming. * The resulting economic and ecological costs are hard to predict, and by the end of the 21st century could be quite severe.
Other environmental changes. Trends such as increased pollution, deforestation and biodiversity loss occurring in the 20th century are likely to continue into the 21st century.
Global power. Issues surrounding the cultural, economic, and military dominance of the United States and its role in the world community have become even more pointed given its recent military activities, problematic relations with the United Nations, disagreement over several international treaties, and its economic policies with regard to globalization. Integration of the European Union and the African Union have proceeded.
Intellectual property. The increasing popularity of digital formats for entertainment media such as movies and music, and the ease of copying and distributing it via the Internet and peer-to-peer networks, has raised concerns in the media industry about copyright infringement. Much debate is proceeding about the proper bounds between protection of copyright, trademark and patent rights versus fair use and the public domain, where some argue that such laws have shifted greatly towards intellectual property owners and away from the interests of the general public in recent years, while others say that such legal change is needed to deal with the threat of new technologies against the rights of authors and artists (or, as others put it, against the outmoded business models of the current entertainment industry). Domain name "cybersquatting" and access to patented drugs to combat epidemics in third-world countries are other IP concerns.
Technology developments show no sign of ending. Communications and control technology continues to augment the intelligence of individual humans, collections of humans, and machines. Cultures are forced into the position of sharply defining humanity and determining boundaries on desire, thought, communication, behavior, and manufacturing. Some predict that by the middle of this century there will be a Technological Singularity if artificial intelligences are created that are smarter than humans. If these then create even smarter AI's technological change will accelerate in ways that are impossible for us to foresee.
Energy is becoming scarce and more expensive, due to the escalating demand for petroleum ("oil") and oil-based products such as gasoline and kerosene, unmatched by production. Discovery of new oil fields has not been sufficient to sustain current levels of production, and some fear that the earth may be running out of economically viable oil. While complete depletion will not happen in the near future, some fear that a peak in production will cause an end to the trend of economic expansion in modern society, perhaps resulting in a collapse of modern civilization itself. Most economists argue that alternative sources of energy will prevent this disaster.
The United Nations lists global issues on its agenda here and lists a set of Millennium Goals to attempt to address some of these issues.
However, it is important to note that the current year is only , which means we are only at the start of the century. Therefore, it is impossible to make detailed predictions about the future of this century.
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Influential people in politics as of 2006
(in alphabetical order)
Karl Rove, President Bush's senior advisor, chief political strategist, and deputy chief of staff in charge of policy.
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Influential people in religion as of 2006
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Influential people in technology as of 2006
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Influential people in science as of 2006
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Influential people in mathematics as of 2006
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Influential people in the arts as of 2006
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Astronomical events
2010/2011: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Uranus
Wednesday, June 6, 2012: Transit of Venus to occur a second time this century
2024 (plus or minus 5 years): Next predicted return of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks.
2025/2026: Triple conjunction Saturn-Neptune
2037/2038: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Uranus
2041/2042: Triple conjunction Mars-Uranus
2047/2048: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Neptune
2063: Triple conjunction Mars-Uranus
November 22, 2065: At 12:45 UTC, Venus will occult Jupiter. This event will be the first occultation of a planet by another since January 3, 1818. This event will be very difficult to observe, because the elongation of Venus and Jupiter from the Sun on that date will be only 7 degrees.
2066: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Uranus
July 15, 2067: At 11:56 UTC, Mercury will occult Neptune. This rare event will be very difficult to observe.
2071/2072: Triple conjunction Mars-Neptune
2079: Triple conjunction Saturn-Uranus
2085/2086: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Neptune
2088/2089: Triple conjunction Mars-Neptune
2093: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Uranus
April 7, 2094: At 10:48 UTC, Mercury will occult Jupiter
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Television and film
The new series of Doctor Who which began in 2005 has events that take place in the 21st century.
The events of Stargate SG-1 continue into the early 21st century.
The American cartoon show Robotech, composed from the footage of three unrelated anime series (including Macross, above) spans the years 1999 to 2015, 2030-2031 and 2044-2045.
Deep space vessel ''Event Horizon'' was sent to test an artificial wormhole (black hole) in deep space in the year 2040. The lost ship is found 7 years later by a rescue team on board the ship Lewis and Clark on low orbit around the planet Neptune.
The Jetsons is supposed to take place in the late 21st century.
The final episode of X-Files sets 2012 as the date for alien colonization.
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Computer and video games
The discovery of the Zohar in Xenosaga takes place in 20XX.
The events of occur in 20XX.
In , the 2nd Korean War starts early in this century
The Mr. Driller series (and , a game in its related timeline) takes place in 20XX.
The video game and cartoon 20X6 of Homestar Runner supposedly takes place in the seventh year of an unspecified decade in the 21st century.
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Novels
Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age is also set in the 21st century, after some disaster befell the centralized telephone network. This led people to build a decentralized network, which they used to transfer money, thus destroying normal methods of taxation and bringing down most large governments.
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Decades and years
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See also
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