AS WE close out 2023, what awaits us in 2024? As any sensible New Scientist reader knows, the division of time into years is a fairly arbitrary business, marking only that Earth has completed a full orbit around the sun (yes, OK, give or take 0.256363004 days, pipe down there at the back please). As such, many of the big stories of this year, such as the rise of artificial intelligence and the growing danger of climate change, will remain the big stories of the next.
Yet it is hard not to imbue a new year with new significance. In particular, 2024 looks set to be the year of the moon. An extraordinary armada of uncrewed probes and perhaps even crewed spacecraft will be headed to our orbiting companion (see 鈥淚nternational fleet of spacecraft is heading to the moon in 2024鈥�), marking what will probably be the most exciting period of lunar exploration since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first touched down in 1969. With countries around the world promising big plans for the moon, could this be the start of a new space age?
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Back here on Earth, we could also see the dawning of a new age 鈥� or at least a slightly old age could finally become official. After years of wrangling, researchers will vote on whether to declare 1950 as the start of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch shaped by humankind (see 鈥淲e might officially enter the Anthropocene epoch in 2024鈥�).
Such a declaration won鈥檛 be the only event that will focus our minds on humanity鈥檚 influence on the planet. Despite 2023 breaking heat records around the world, making it probably the hottest year ever recorded, 2024 is waiting in the wings to smash those records once again. While it is the El Ni帽o weather pattern that keeps pushing us over the edge (see 鈥�2024 will break the extreme temperature records set in 2023鈥�), we wouldn鈥檛 be standing on the precipice were it not for our global greenhouse gas emissions.
With countries at the COP28 summit having agreed to transition away from fossil fuels, will we really see action on ditching oil and gas before COP29 in November 2024 (see 鈥淲ill 2024 see the world finally turning away from fossil fuels?鈥�)? We can only hope 鈥� and that really would make 2024 worth marking.
