The Korea Research Institute on Human Settlement sounds like it could be dedicated to terraforming Mars, and indeed a recent report of theirs shows how many South Koreans may think their country looks utterly other-worldly in 2050.

According to Korean daily Chosun Ilbo and its recap of the KRIHS study, floods will be more frequent and cause millions of homes to be built on stilts.

Robots will perform half of all industrial labor, leaving intellectual tasks to a South Korean population that will have contracted by over 6 million.

Of the approximately 42 million South Korean residents in 2050, 10% will be foreigners (up from just around 2% today), and the elderly will triple as a percentage of the population!

Owing to the consumption patterns of larger Asian populations in China, India, and Indonesia (South Korea is only 48 million strong today), future Koreans will be far more reliant on renewable energy resources like solar and wind power.

South Korea currently derives only 1.4% of its energy from green sources, and that is projected to rise to 20% by 2050.

With all of its oil coming from imports and now standing as the #5 net importer in the world, South Korea has to make moves in the coming years and decades.

Yet that still lags the progress of countries like India, where solar power alone is planned to generate 20% of the country's electricity by 2020.

Regards,

Sam Hopkins