Albert Einstein claimed he never thought about the future. "It comes soon enough," he would say. And you can see his point. What would have been the good of worrying about our destiny when it was not of our making? But life has changed since the great physicist's day. Sweeping changes of our own creation now beset our world: carbon emissions, soaring populations, cloning, rising extinction rates.

We are changing our planet and its biosphere in ways that were once unimaginable. We are also developing lifesaving technologies that would have appeared equally incredible a few decades ago. Everywhere we witness change. But what will this bring and how will it affect our world?

In this article, we address these questions in detail and explore the issues involved, concerns that will shape the existence and lifestyles of ourselves and our children. Some, notably those involved in medical research, look very hopeful. Others, especially those concerned with climate and biodiversity, look far less optimistic. Indeed, they appear downright disturbing.

Overall, it is sobering stuff, though we should not be too downhearted about our prospects for life in 2020. As that other great guru of the 20th century, Charles M. Schulz, creator of the 'Peanuts' cartoon, once observed: "You needn't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia."

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Whatever else we experience in 2020, the impact of climate change will be inescapable. That's the clear message from virtually every scientist working in the field. Last century saw global atmospheric temperatures rising by 0.6˚C; in the next decade and a half, we can expect much the same.

"Climate change will become particularly noticeable at the poles," says James Lovelock, the British scientist who developed the Gaia hypothesis, the idea that life itself makes existence tolerable on Earth. "By 2020, the North Pole will be becoming free of ice, and by the end of the decade we will be able to sail straight across it. At the same time, the great glaciers of the southern hemisphere and the West Antarctic ice sheet will be breaking up."

The seas will rise dramatically, flooding Earth's low-lying areas. Thus, by 2020, we will have a very good idea of the fate that is awaiting our planet: heat, flooding and desertification. "Essentially, for most people on the planet, it will be like living through war," warns Lovelock. "It will be grim, but we are all going to have to stick together in our own communities."

It is an apocalyptic vision. Nevertheless, Lovelock – one of the world's most distinguished climate experts – is not alone in his prognosis. Graeme Pearman, of Australia's national science agency, the CSIRO, also forecasts cataclysmic changes. "The Great Barrier Reef is already suffering from serious bleaching," he says. "Temperature increases are killing off the coral and, with another one-degree increase in global temperatures in prospect, we are going to see serious damage being done to it. Not just from bleaching, but from damage from ever-worsening storms that are yet another consequence of global warming." (See also 'The late Great Barrier Reef', Cosmos 9, p 32).

Around 90 per cent of people living today will still be alive in 2020, so these disturbances will touch almost every family on Earth. Neither can we do anything to halt them. Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide that have already taken place make them inevitable. Preventing even greater horrors should therefore be a scientific and political priority for the next decade and a half, says Tim Flannery, professor at Macquarie University in Sydney and author of the climatic bestseller, The Weather Makers. And, most importantly, a new and comprehensive policy for curbing carbon emissions both at home and in the workplace is now desperately needed. As Flannery points out: "It's now too late to avoid changing our world. But we still have time, if good policy is implemented, to avoid disaster."