Landscape of Great Change by the Numbers - Environmental Change and the Future of Humanity" - circa 2025

Landscape of Great Change by the Numbers - Environmental Change and the Future of Humanity" - circa 2025

We are already at a historical tipping point. The International Organization for Migration estimates that approximately 1.5 billion people will become "environmental refugees" over the next 30 years, displaced from their homes as a direct result of climate change. It has also been suggested that vast areas of the globe could become "uninhabitable" for up to 3.5 billion people, meaning that the human habitable area is rapidly shrinking physically.

Global warming is progressing, with the number of days with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius increasing 11-fold compared to the past 30 years. No longer is "extreme heat" an exceptional phenomenon. In the U.S., it is estimated that 500,000 homes will be flooded each year by 2050, resulting in a loss of $241 billion in total property value. Natural disasters are also increasing in frequency, with 1.7 million people in the U.S. alone losing their homes to extreme weather events in 2020. This is more than eight times more frequent than in 2018, with disasters hitting the city every 18 days.

Cities are also undergoing a transformation. In Bangladesh, 130 million people will face forced internal displacement by 2050. 500 million people in China and 1 billion in India are under pressure to migrate. In Jakarta, the world's largest city, land subsidence continues at 25 centimeters per year, and relocation of the city itself is inevitable by 2050.

Developed countries are facing another form of crisis. In 13 countries, including Japan and Spain, the population is expected to halve by 2100. Already in North America and Europe, the number of people over the age of 65 has reached 300 million, and by 2050, a world with an elderly dependent population index of 43% will become a reality, with 100 workers supporting 43 elderly people.

Climate, population, cities, social security - all areas are beginning to shake simultaneously. Migration is no longer an outcome, but is becoming the only survival strategy for those who have no choice. Yet immigration restrictions and border controls are rather tightened: 100 million people worldwide will be at risk of urban flooding by 2050, yet freedom of movement continues to be restricted.

These numbers are not tools for predicting the future. They are the invisible, definitive facts that have already seeped into the present time and are quietly eroding the undercurrents of our lives.