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The 21st century is the current century of the ''Anno Domini'' era or the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2001, and will end on December 31, 2100.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The 21st Century and the 3rd Millennium When Did They Begin? )〕〔"(When and where did the new Millennium officially start, and why? )". Royal Observatory Greenwich〕 It is the first century of the 3rd millennium. It is distinct from the century known as the 2000s, which began on January 1, 2000 and will end December 31, 2099. ==Transitions and changes== The first years of the 21st century have thus far been marked by the rise of a global economy and Third World consumerism, mistrust in government, deepening global concern over terrorism and an increase in the power of private enterprise. The longterm effects of increased globalisation are not known, but there are many who are concerned about its implications.〔http://www.globescan.com/news_archives/GIM_globalization.pdf〕 The Arab Spring of the early 2010s led to mixed outcomes in the Arab world. The Digital Revolution which began around the 1980s also continues into the present. The Millennials (born c. 1981-2000) having been born before the turn of the century give way to the rise of Generation Y & Generation Z in Western countries. In contemporary history, the 21st century began with the United States as the sole superpower in the absence of the Soviet Union, while China began its rise to becoming a superpower and the BRIC countries aim to create more balance in the global political and economic spectrum. The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 marks the continual rise of Life Sciences, which makes mankind's long-held dreams, such as curing cancer, more realistic. By the 2010s gene therapy, first performed somatically in late 1990 and heritably in 1996, showed promise but remains an experimental and emerging technology. The first designer babies were born in 1990 by a process called preimplantation genetic diagnosis,〔http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2330030〕 which became more common by the 21st century. While digital telecommunications technology became widely used by most of the world, concerns about stress from the overuse of mobile phones, the Internet and related technologies remains controversial. By 2013 about 80 percent of the world's population used mobile phones.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The growth of mobile )〕 An estimated 33% owned personal computers in 2010, and 40 percent used the Internet by 2014, compared to about 1 percent in 1996. The distribution of modern technology is not equal - in 2012 it was estimated that 1.5 billion people, or about 20% of the world's population still lacked access to electric power, with many more having only intermittent or poor access.〔http://www.forbes.com/sites/statoil/2015/02/17/how-microgrids-could-bring-electricity-to-1-5-billion-people/〕 The International Energy Agency estimates that 82% of the global population has access to electricity as of 2012 with the percentage projected to increase to 88% by 2030. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「21st century」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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