A decade of travel in a world without walls

Joel L. Cuello, after traveling six continents, 22 countries, and 59 cities from 2000 to 2010, highlights three trends that are expected to reshape the globally interconnected world in this century. He found that with the shift in the world's population from the developed world to the developing world, and from west to east, an urbanizing world has been reshaping the global economic, scientific, political, and military landscapes and will continue to do so in the coming decades. There is consensus that the main driver of global economic expansion from now on will be the economic growth of newly industrialized countries, such as China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia. Humans are expected to use 140 billion tonnes of planetary resources per year by 2050, which would be equivalent to collectively consuming resources of a total weight roughly equal to that of Mount Everest.