Extreme weather events will become more common. Credit:Glenn Campbell Welcome to 2050. The days are hotter, the sun is harsher and sea levels are up. A series of extreme storms have hit NSW that have been directly linked to the warm ocean temperatures associated with global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is now 95 per cent certain that humans are the main cause of current global warming. Increased greenhouse gas emissions have led to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide that are unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years. "I expect by 2050 ... people just don't go outside," said Professor Andy Pitman, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at UNSW. "The weather events that have not even been imagined yet will become common and we will be seeing events unprecedented in our region's history."

Beach erosion will become more commonplace. Credit:Nick Moir Climate change already causes the deaths of 400,000 people each year, principally due to the effect of hunger and communicable diseases on children in developing countries, according to a 2012 paper by non-profit organisation DARA and the Climate Vulnerable Forum. It suggested our present carbon-intensive energy system and related activities are responsible for an estimated 4.5 million deaths every year, linked to air pollution and hazardous occupations. "We know by mid-century if we're not doing anything about climate change, which we're not, this problem is going to escalate quite significantly," said Dr George Crisp, WA chair of health advocacy organisation Doctors for the Environment. "It is not unreasonable to envisage a time where they recommend people over a certain age leave the city for respite from the adverse environmental conditions."

As well as the elderly, young children will also face increased health risks in a warmer world. Research cited in a paper by Doctors for the Environment has already linked higher temperatures with increased emergency department attendances for fever, gastroenteritis, asthma, hormone and metabolic diseases and nervous system diseases in Brisbane and at Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney. However, Pitman says it is important to acknowledge that while it will be warmer, in many cases the increase in the average temperature "won't really be particularly noticeable because humans acclimatise to heat quite quickly". "But there will be significant events related to very high temperatures that increasingly have major impacts on the region," he said, pointing to east coast lows which will be less frequent but much more severe, leading to erratic erosion of sand on Sydney's beaches.

"Big weather events have already led to technological innovation, in terms of the crops being grown and livestock being carried." It is such technological innovation that has left CSIRO principal scientist Stefan Hajkowicz believing the future "is, or at least can be, bright". In his book Global Megatrends he identifies the seven economic and developmental forces the world is likely to face, the first of which he terms, "more from less". "It really is the story of the pressures on resources: mineral, food, energy and water. The world must make 70 per cent more food by the end of 2050 than it does today to be able to feed itself." Increasing innovation in technology and lifestyle will eliminate the likelihood of a serious food security dilemma, or as he puts it, a "subsequent Armageddon", he says.

"For example, lab-grown meat, which will require much less land area, much less energy, but it is essentially meat grown on stem cells." Could 2050 herald the Big Mac with a lab-grown meat pattie? "That is not ridiculous to imagine at all, it is entirely feasible. There will be a yuck factor, but that in time might change." Around the dinner table, think potentially less guacamole (as avocados struggle in temperatures above 35 degrees), a less plentiful weekly serving of dairy (due to heatwave stress cutting milk production by as much as 40 per cent) and a loaf of bread made from genetically modified wheat (adapted to best suit rising carbon dioxide levels, higher temperatures and varying rainfall). Wine enthusiasts should also note, as much as 70 per cent of wine-growing regions with a Mediterranean climate will be less suitable for grape growing by 2050.

This could mean fewer Friday nights with a tipple of shiraz or merlot, the varieties set to be most affected. Hajkowicz also points to the considerable transformation taking hold of the energy industry. "By 2050 the grid will look a whole lot different. I would suspect the majority of cars on the road will be electric by that point. They may be recharging on the road, with the road surface as a solar panel, recharging the car." Research Fellow and PhD candidate at Curtin University Jemma Green has looked closely at innovation in energy, in terms of technology, policy and market changes.

She predicts that by 2050 the average person will get 70 per cent of their electricity needs from their roof, aided by batteries. "We'll have backup systems in the form of electric vehicles, with large batteries. The affordable electric vehicle market will take off from 2017 onwards ... to make up 15 per cent of the new car market in Australia by 2020," she said. "I think the battery revolution is going to happen and it's going to be major and very, very significant in Australia. The gold rush is not going to be as fast as people think initially, but once the floodgates open it's going to be massive."