Photograph by Spencer Millsap
Photograph by Spencer Millsap

The Science of Predicting the Future

While most of the world watched soccer or did laundry on Sunday, a group of scientists at the office of the United Nation’s Environment Program in Kenya hit publish on a report about the future of Planet Earth so comprehensive that it would take three reams of paper—500 pages each—to print.

Its takeaways have been widely publicized and highly forecasted and may boil down to this: The world is on shaky footing. A changing climate over the next several decades will have sweeping impacts over all areas of human civilization. Warmer global temperatures will restrict access to water, reduce food yields, and heighten tensions between countries in search of natural resources. Perhaps the most sobering was the nugget

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