I might have more than just three, but…
They can be personal, political, philosophical, peculiar, alliterative.
China/Taiwan - Xi Jinping really, really wants Taiwan. I’ve heard grumblings about “total war” by 2026. I don’t see the US, Taiwan or even China coming out “definitively victorious” in this conflict - just casulaties and attrition.
The Kessler Effect - essentially the domino effect of a fawlty / damaged satellite crashing into another one, sending rogue shards and pieces into the paths of subsequent satellites. (Even a stray paint chip could render major damage, elsewhere. Scary.)
Someone please walk me off the ledge of visalizing a non-stop barrage event of damaged satellites crashing into each other in an increasingly growing frenzy of bumper cart action, as more and more services on earth are rendered useless, as the domino effect fighteningly intensifies.
The Colorado River - approximately 40 million people, in 7(?) states, directly rely on this water source. Its two major reservoirs - Lake Mead and Lake Powell - are at about 30% capacity, the former speculated to reach deadpool within two years, which I think the residents of Las Vegas are either too oblivious or “whatevs” about it. (hopefully that last speculation I can be corrected on). I don’t live near this region and it still frightens the golly out of me. There’ll be a ripple effect - it won’t be just those seven states affected if and when deadpool does happen.
I try not to obsess about this shit too much.
ETA: Of course, Ukraine…UGH…whatever the hell’ll come of that…oh but that’s four worries. No, three. No, four, four of them. (Cardinal Fang)
I only worry about stuff I can do anything about, so pretty much what @Llama_Llogophile said.
My concerns on a macro level are
Income inequality
Idiots with nuclear weapons
The environment (climate change, endangered habitats and species, pollution, et al)
Mine are personal, political and involve climate change.
We get up to 30 feet of snow a year where we live. We have to deal with it. As we age it’s going to get harder and harder. But will it? With climate change, it could get easier, or harder. I predict both. It will change year to year.
Where would we move? We love our place. But we may be better off living somewhere where there is sure to be less snow. Where we live is pretty much the source of water for the west. It does not run downhill to us. But the odds of getting EMS to us in the winter is very, very slim. We have to take care of ourselves. Shit, the sheriff’s office is closed from 11pm to 7am. Nobody even on call. Their slogan should be “Good Luck.”
I’m fine without interaction with people face to face. I prefer not having it except for a small group. I’m nearly deaf. Crowds are a pain for me. My Wife is gonna want more interaction when she retires. Girls night out sort of stuff. That’s fine by me. But we are going to want a purple state, not above 40 latitude. I’d like some land (an acre or so), and so does my wife. No way we are moving into an apartment or condo.
I’m thinking more to the south in Colorado. We can’t move to a higher elevation. It would be nearly impossible to do. But something like 7000 feet or so. Somewhere around Salida Colorado is looking pretty darn good. Pretty cool town too.
War in Ukraine escalating to nuclear conflict. The most likely of the three.
War with China. Increasingly likely as China’s economy gets worse and our sanctions force their hand with Taiwan. We are repeating the mistake we made by sanctioning Japanese oil pre-WWII.
Global energy shortages leading to deep recessions and more conflict. If we keep going on the path we are on the economic and human damage from this could outstrip the potential damage from global warming.
I’m a bit more selfish than most of the posters here, my 3 biggest future worries are all personal:
That I’ll either marry a woman whom I shouldn’t, or not marry a woman whom I should (story of my relationship life over the past 8 years)
That something bad will happen to my eyesight or my brain - or, that people will hurt me in some way (my primary OCD phobias)
That I’ll just get older and older, still floundering about for answers, and being no better at 50 than currently at 35 - just like I was determined, at age 25, to be a much better version of myself at 35, and in fact only got worse.
Space Junk has always struck me as an opportunity disguised as a problem.
The biggest limiting factor for anything we do in space is the cost to launch mass into orbit. Space junk is a whole lot of mass that’s already up there, paid for by someone else.
If someone can figure out a way to actually capture this stuff, and re-use it, they’ll have a huge advantage over any other space operations, while also reducing the risks of Kessler Syndrome.
I was worried about my final years even before this recent thread came up:
Wife and I have plenty of money saved up for retirement, no worries there. But I watched how my parents lived in their final decade, and how much help they needed from us kids as their bodies and minds faltered more and more. Things got pretty rough, even with attention from all three of us, even when they were in assisted living. And unlike my parents, my wife and I don’t have kids - no one will visit for a long weekend to take care of esoteric household chores, no one will keep an eye on our health, make doctor’s appointments or go with us to those appointment to take notes. I tell my wife we’re going to have to solve our old-age problems with money, but I know there’s only so much that money can do. As bad as my parents had it at their end, I think my wife and I will not have it so good.
I hear ya Machine_Elf. My wife and I are DINKS. I took care of my mom for the last 15 years (she passed last October). She had broken both hips. So she did not get around very well. My cousin who lives closer helped as much as she could. My Wife an I live 100 miles away, so I spent many, many weekends away from my home. I’m at her home now taking care of the estate. This weekend it’s taxes. :sigh:
We FINALLY found a retirement home that my mom accepted. Brand new, construction just finishing up. I’d live there, It seemed great. Really a beautiful set up.
Then COVID struck. Completely threw a wrench in the works. Since older folks are more susceptible, I doubt I could help move her in and iron out the kinks or visit her. At that time there was no vaccine, and we really where not sure what we where dealing with.
And since my mom wanted to stay at her home anyway, COVID completely put a stop to a retirement comunity.
Hell, we don’t have anyone now who can help us. We have a young child, but I’m not sure if he will be self-sufficient enough to move out on his own much less take care of some elderly people. I’m more worried about what happens to him after we pass. We thought we had to arrange for our own future so it didn’t affect his. Now we might have to arrange for his future as well.
But I don’t know. It’s a long time from now, and I might die young, so who knows? We have some time to figure it out.
I worry that things won’t turn out well for my loved ones. Obviously, I have specific fears for each family member, but I’ll just count all of them as one.
I worry that my husband will die and I won’t know how to function anymore and I’ll lose our house that I love. Plus he’ll be dead!
I worry that the bad people will take over. Already we’ve lost abortion rights and they’re banning books, and people don’t seem to care. Are we waiting until they tattoo numbers on our arms to take this shit seriously?