Nanotech water filtration will assist with no methods of desalinization but it will not be enough to irrigate fields. New 100% recycling proposals have nearly 100% of wastewater recycled and the detritus, normally dumped into rivers, streams and the ocean, will find new uses as soil.

Starvation will take over as the world’s biggest killer of humans (and animals). Unfortunately, this will lead to a new kind of refugee, the water refugee. Bands of people will encounter armed resistance as they begin migrating in search of food, and more importantly, water. Local skirmishes will take place as people protect their limited resources. But, the wealthy will be able to shield themselves from this with OLED walls and holograms. The world’s rich will become richer and the poor will simply disappear. Life spans will increase for the wealthy, and already have, and will diminish for the poor.

Healthcare will change the world dramatically. Huge efforts by the well-meaning will attempt to provide life extending therapies to the poor, but the population will spike and these efforts will be abandoned. The population will spike anyway because in the next few years we will wipe out malaria, dengue fever and most of the water borne diseases, causing a huge spike in survival in places in the world already experiencing record population growth.

All the movies in theaters will be 3D to attract viewers who can now easily download and watch movies in super high resolution at home for next to nothing.

I hope that our dependence on oil goes down before we war more. Water will be interesting especially if sea water level rises and contaminates fresh water. I wonder if that would cause more evaporation and thus more rain. This might be countered by warming but maybe not. Have not heard this aspect discussed…

but I really expect some bad news too. Oil wars, water wars, pestilence, super-bugs.