2020s

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century – 21st century – 22nd century
Decades:	1990s 2000s 2010s – 2020s – 2030s 2040s 2050s
Years:	2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029

The 2020s (pronounced "twenty-twenties" or "two thousand (and) twenties") is a decade of the Gregorian calendar. It will begin on January 1, 2020 and will end on December 31, 2029.

Pronunciation

Two pronunciations are used to mention specific years of the 21st century in English.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} For example, 2026 is either pronounced "twenty-twenty-six" or "two thousand twenty-six".^[2]

Notable predictions and known events

• The interaction of the three main decadal solar cycles suggests an upcoming reduction in solar activity, with a low-energy period centered on 2020.^[6] As suggested by John Maddox of Nature, this might mitigate the global warming (at least temporarily) in the 2010s and 2020s.^[7]
• Assuming that the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation runs through a 70-year quasi-cycle (after peaks in ≈1880 and ≈1950), its current warm phase is likely to reach its peak.^[8][9]
• Each of ESA (Europe),^[10] CNSA (China),^[11] FKA (Russia),^[12] and ISRO (India)^[13] plan to send a manned mission to the Moon.
• According to a 2008 report released by the National Intelligence Council, the United States will experience the relative decline of its economic and military power, driven both by the rise of new behemoths such as China, India, and the EU and by domestic constraints on its global leadership.^[14]
• Voyager 2 is expected to stop transmitting back to Earth in the 2020s.^[15]
• In 2008, futurist Ray Kurzweil put 2029 as the year most likely for a breakthrough in Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). He expects that around this time, computers will reach human intelligence levels, and shortly thereafter surpass the capabilities of the human brain.^[16]
• In 2008, Intel predicted that the performance of supercomputers will reach zettaflops scale by 2029.^[17]
• Near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis will pass Earth within the orbits of geosynchronous communication satellites on Friday, April 13, 2029.
• By the end of the 2020s, the world population is projected to surpass 8 billion people, half a billion more than 2020, representing a slowdown in growth from the decade of the 2010s, which is expected to see an increase in the world population by 700 million.^[18]
• The Mars-Grunt sample return mission is proposed to launch in the mid-2020s.
• China's coal production will peak and then rapidly decline in the year 2027 (prediction in 2011).^[19]

In popular culture

• The television series Sealab 2021 takes place in the year 2021.
• The anime series Deadman Wonderland takes place in the year 2022.
• The anime series Sword Art Online initially takes place on November 6, 2022.
• The Disney Channel sitcom Good Luck Charlie featured an episode, "Future Drama" 10 years into the future (2024).
• The majority of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine two-part story "Past Tense" takes place between August 30 and September 3, 2024.
• One of the two storylines in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 takes place in the year 2025.
• The film Pacific Rim takes place in 2025.
• The Phineas and Ferb (season 4) Episode Act Your Age takes place in 2025.
• Power Rangers SPD takes place in the year 2025.
• The science fiction series Fringe season three finale "The Day We Died" takes place around May 20, 2026.
• Capcom games Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies takes place in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution takes place in the year 2027, the upcoming sequel, Mankind Divided, takes place two years later.
• Call of Duty: Ghosts also takes place in 2027.
• The story of the video game Half-Life 2 takes place between May 15, 202X and May 30, 202X. (The "202X" convention is meant to indicate that it could be any year between 2020 and 2029.)

References

1. Higgins, David (26 October 2009). "It's the end of the Noughties, we feel fine". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 2010-11-19. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
2. Burnett, Thane (28 December 2009). "Twenty-ten, Two-oh-ten, Two thousand and ten: What is the proper way to reference 2010?". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
3. "'Twenty Tens' to become nickname for next decade, survey says". The Daily Telegraph (London). 17 December 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
4. Jones, Sam (1 January 2010). "A new decade: what's in a name?". The Guardian (United Kingdom). Archived from the original on 6 January 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
5. "New Year revellers welcome in 2010". United Kingdom: BBC News. 1 January 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
6. Berger, Wolfgang H.; et al. (2002). "A Case for Climate Cycles: Orbit, Sun and Moon". Climate development and history of the North Atlantic realm. Berlin: Springer. pp. 101–123. ISBN 3-540-43201-9.
7. Maddox, John (1995). "Natural antidote to global warming?". Nature 377 (6546): 193. doi:10.1038/377193a0.
8. Curry, Judith A. (2008). "Potential Increased Hurricane Activity in a Greenhouse Warmed World". In MacCracken, Michael C.; Moore, Frances; Topping, John C. Sudden and disruptive climate change. London: Earthscan. pp. 29–38. ISBN 1-84407-478-1. Assuming that the AMO continues with a 70-year periodicity, the peak of the next cycle would be expected in 2020 (70 years after the previous 1950 peak).
9. Enfield, David B.; Cid-Serrano, Luis (2010). "Secular and multidecadal warmings in the North Atlantic and their relationships with major hurricane activity". International Journal of Climatology 30 (2): 174–184. doi:10.1002/joc.1881.
10. Kluger, Jeffrey (November 13, 2008). "40 Years Later, It's Moon Race 2.0". Time.
11. "China considering manned lunar landing in 2025-2030". Xinhua. May 24, 2009.
12. Page, Lewis (October 31, 2007). "Russia plans 2025 Moonbase, 2035 Mars shot". The Register.
13. Singh, Harmeet Shah (July 17, 2009). "India's space odyssey: Moon dreams move east". CNN.
14. Finn, Peter; Pincus, Walter (2008-11-21). "Report Sees Nuclear Arms, Scarce Resources as Seeds of Global Instability". Washington Post.
15. "Voyager – Spacecraft – Spacecraft Lifetime". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 2003-01-14. Archived from the original on 27 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
16. Briggs, Helen (2008-02-16). "Machines 'to match man by 2029'". BBC News.
17. "IDF: Intel says Moore's Law holds until 2029". Heise Online. 2008-04-04.
18. see various projections and sources at World population estimates
19. "The Oil Drum - Peak Coal and China". theoildrum.com.