Life In The Year 2050

EYE S ON THE FUT URE THE YEAR 2050 If the commotion surrounding the predicted Last year, Pew Research and Smithsonian magazine ACCORDING TO rapture last month was any indication, teamed up to conduct a survey that asked Americans THE AMERICAN people are fixated on their fate and the about how they think the country will look in 40 years' PUBLIC future of the world as a whole. time. The answers may surprise you. Percent of "Don't Know" THE UNITED STATES IN 2050 April 2010 "Will "Will Not A TIME FOR TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT May Respondents Наppen" Наpрen" IN THE NEXT 40 YEARS... 1999 The majority of Americans surveyed see the future as a time of technological progress. A full 81 percent even believe that computers will be able to communicate in the same way RACE RELATIONS | 68% ..will improve that people do, and 53 percent envision commercial 81% 68% space travel expanding like never before. ...will get worse 28% 18% 23% 4% Don't know Computers can converse like 9% A cure for humans INCOME DISPARITY cancer 69% .will grow 58% 71% |27% ..will get smaller 34% 4% 8% Don't know SCIENCE & 27% HEALTH CARE Artificial limbs | 36% ...will be more affordable TECHNOLOGY 50% 2% perform better than natural ones .will be less affordable 60% 46% Ordinary people travel in space 4% 4% Don't know 31% 66% PUBLIC EDUCATION 66% 45% .will improve 49% 30% 3% ...will get worse 53% 46% 4% 5% 2% Don't know Another world war 4% OVERALL OPTIMISM FOR LIFE AT HOME World faces major energy crisis WAR 30% 37% LIFE FOR YOU May April 66% AND YOUR FAMILY 1999 2011 72% 58% Percent of Respondents ENVIRONMENT 15% 31% Major terrorist nuclear Earth is attack on the U.S. warmer 3% Pessimistic 25% WORLD WAR III? 4% Fifty-eight percent of respondents predict that a world war will occur in the next four 4% 53% decades. Additionally, 53 percent fear that Don't know the U.S. will find itself under a nuclear 81% 64% GREENER PASTURES 24% terrorist attack by 2050. 74% With close to three-fourths of Americans agreeing that a major energy crisis will be underway, it's no surprise 43% that a large percentage also anticipates that our primary 4% Most of our energy comes from sources other than coal, oil, or gas Optimistic source of energy will no longer be coal, oil or gas. SOURCES: PEW RESEARCH | SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE A COLLABORATION BETWEEN GOOD AND COLUMN FIVE