Kathmandu, April 12 -- While Nepal's calendar enters the eighties on Saturday 13 April, this is a good time to pause and think about what might lie ahead for Nepal and the world in Gregorian year 2081.

The world is too late to limit the global average temperature to 1.5 degree C. By 2081, ocean expansion and heat stress will lead to mass migration to higher latitudes and altitudes. Multi-disasters, conflicts and food shortages will stalk the planet.

At the present rate of birth rate declines, China's population will have shrunk to 850 million. By 2081, there will only be half as many Koreans as there are today. Nepal's population pyramid will have inverted by then, and total inhabitants will decline to 22 million.

The outmigration of N...