1. Union of North American currencies. I've posted about this before, and recently talk has been buzzing about the "Amero". I think that when the Canadian dollar reaches par with the U.S. dollar, this union will take place. Canadians will object but like Free Trade, it will rammed through anyway.

2. Joint customs control will be implemented along all external North American borders by synchronized U.S. and Canadian agencies. While it's a potential affront to our sovereignty, it will be done to reduce escalating security costs along the internal Canada-U.S. border.

3. American and Canadian defence will work more closely together on the continental level. NORAD will be replaced by a more comprehensive defence agreement. Naval cooperation especially will expand to match that which NORAD currently provides to Air Defence.

4. The Parti Quebecois will win an April election in Quebec, fast tracking a new sovereignty referendum for the fall. Partly in response to this, a Federal election will be forced in June. Harper will return with a second minority. The gun registry, sadly, stays intact through all of this.

5. The planet continues to heat up. The world will see an increased degradation in Arctic and Antarctic glaciers. As a result, Iqaluit will get its deep-water port approved. Further south, increased temperatures will result in an increase in parasitic diseases, and diseases such as malaria, as the range of insects and other carriers expands farther and farther north, especially in summer.

6. Major worldwide economic troubles combined with food shortages resulting from climate change and increased drought in Asia and Africa will increase the general level of tension around the world. Incomes will be halved and the price of bread/rice will double.

7. Terrorists with connections to South American countries will strike American oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. government will use this as a pretext to seek the freezing of Venezuelan financial assets. Oil prices in general however, remain relatively stable as worldwide production during the economic slowdown -- and therefore consumption -- is reduced, risking a glut.

8. In response to U.S. air strikes against Iran, the Iranian army will invade and occupy parts of Iraq to retaliate directly against U.S. forces on the ground. I expect it will happen in spring. Around this time, in other news, someone "invents" a miracle alternative to oil.

9. The Chinese will invade North Korea under humanitarian pretenses, but primarily to stall the growing desires of Japan to rearm. On the side, a blackmarket in human trafficking will boom as North Korean women are sold to provide wives for Chinese men suffering under China's growing gender disparity.

10. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 will have a higher box office take than Spiderman 3.

Labels: Arctic, Canada, China, climate change, Futurism, Iran, Korea, North American Union, Nunavut, politicians, Quebec, United States, war