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vox_mundi

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WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« on: January 20, 2021, 03:44:11 AM »
WEF The Global Risks Report 2021
http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-report-2021/

Report: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2021.pdf

In the Global Risks Report 2021, we share the results of the latest Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), followed by analysis of growing social, economic and industrial divisions, their interconnections, and their implications on our ability to resolve major global risks requiring societal cohesion and global cooperation.

... Among the highest likelihood risks of the next ten years are extreme weather, climate action failure and human-led environmental damage; as well as digital power concentration, digital inequality and cybersecurity failure. Among the highest impact risks of the next decade, infectious diseases are in the top spot, followed by climate action failure and other environmental risks; as well as weapons of mass destruction, livelihood crises, debt crises and IT infrastructure breakdown.

When it comes to the time-horizon within which these risks will become a critical threat to the world, the most imminent threats – those that are most likely in the next two years – include employment and livelihood crises, widespread youth disillusionment, digital inequality, economic stagnation, human-made environmental damage, erosion of societal cohesion, and terrorist attacks.

Economic risks feature prominently in the 3-5 year timeframe, including asset bubbles, price instability, commodity shocks and debt crises; followed by geopolitical risks, including interstate relations and conflict, and resource geopolitization. In the 5-10 year horizon, environmental risks such as biodiversity loss, natural resource crises and climate action failure dominate; alongside weapons of mass destruction, adverse effects of technology and collapse of states or multilateral institutions.

Climate change—to which no one is immune—continues to be a catastrophic risk. Although lockdowns worldwide caused global emissions to fall in the first half of 2020, evidence from the 2008–2009 Financial Crisis warns that emissions could bounce back. A shift towards greener economies cannot be delayed until the shocks of the pandemic subside. “Climate action failure” is the most impactful and second most likely long-term risk identified in the GRPS.

Responses to the pandemic have caused new domestic and geopolitical tensions that threaten stability. Digital division and a future “lost generation” are likely to test social cohesion from within borders—exacerbating geopolitical fragmentation and global economic fragility. With stalemates and flashpoints increasing in frequency, GRPS respondents rated “state collapse” and “multilateralism collapse” as critical long-term threats.









“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

morganism

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2022, 01:27:27 AM »
Governments are failing to understand global catastrophic risks and need to take urgent action, says new report

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/governments-are-failing-to-understand-global-catastrophic-risks-and-need-to-take-urgent-action-says

Researchers from Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) today release a new report on what governments can do to understand and inform policy around these risks, which could threaten the global population.

The likelihood that a global catastrophe will occur in the next 20 years is uncertain, say the researchers, but the potential severity means that national governments have a responsibility to their citizens to manage these types of risks.

The report provides 59 practical options for how governments can better understand the risks. Ranging from improving risk management practices to developing better futures analysis, to increasing science and research capability, most national governments must take major policy efforts to match the scale and complexity of the problem, say the researchers.

Catherine Rhodes, CSER’s Executive Director, said: “This report gives policy-makers a set of clear, achievable and effective options. Few countries are making efforts to understand these risks, so most governments will be able to draw policy ideas from the report.

“In the UK, the government is ahead of its peers when it comes to conducting national risk assessments, delivering foresight and horizon-scanning and engaging with the academic community. But even it needs new approaches to understand and deal with global catastrophic risks.”

https://www.gcrpolicy.com/


neal

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2022, 04:58:57 PM »
Virtually all countries are in the mode of stumbling from crisis to crisis, with election cycle performative BS impinging on more of the calendar, eliminating the possibility of "reaching across the aisle" for effective and long-lasting solutions.

Thanks for the help, WEF, but apparently the next election must be fought to the death right now.

etienne

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #3 on: April 10, 2022, 06:57:59 PM »
Virtually all countries are in the mode of stumbling from crisis to crisis, with election cycle performative BS impinging on more of the calendar, eliminating the possibility of "reaching across the aisle" for effective and long-lasting solutions.

Thanks for the help, WEF, but apparently the next election must be fought to the death right now.
Next elections are everywhere an issue if we don't want our local Putin.

Mental health and youth disillusionment are big worries because it has a major impact on how we can build our future.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2022, 07:27:22 PM by etienne »

neal

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2022, 04:57:57 AM »

Next elections are everywhere an issue if we don't want our local Putin.

Mental health and youth disillusionment are big worries because it has a major impact on how we can build our future.

I agree totally, the next election will be key.  Here, in the US, it's all currently being spun around  on Qanon topics like pedophilia, illegal immigrants, Trump getting the election stolen, transgender and gays--sure points can be discussed on all of those points by it's all a whirlwind ofcrazy assertions every day.

What I can say is that many people have completely bought into the online pollution of people like Putin to the deepest internalized degree.

kassy

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2022, 06:16:26 PM »
And that´s far enough off topic. Any general talk about elections can go into politics.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

vox_mundi

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2023
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2023, 05:15:18 PM »
Global Risks Report 2023
https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-report-2023/

The world faces a set of risks that feel both wholly new and eerily familiar. The Global Risks Report 2023 explores some of the most severe risks we may face over the next decade. As we stand on the edge of a low-growth and low-cooperation era, tougher trade-offs risk eroding climate action, human development and future resilience.

Report: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_Report_2023.pdf



“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

neal

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2023, 10:07:58 PM »
My vote is on dis- and mis-information applied to a society that doesn't have cohesion.

Every path forward blocked by random conspiracy theories

It'll stop solutions every time.

Alexander555

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2023, 09:47:39 AM »
I think one of the most impotant things is not even in it, desertification. It is related to the water crisis and the loss of biodiversity. But how many years can you turn 12 million hectares into desert before you get into deep deep deep troubles ? Not for many years, that's for sure. https://www.fao.org/in-action/action-against-desertification/overview/desertification-and-land-degradation/en/

The Walrus

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2023, 02:38:06 PM »
I think one of the most impotant things is not even in it, desertification. It is related to the water crisis and the loss of biodiversity. But how many years can you turn 12 million hectares into desert before you get into deep deep deep troubles ? Not for many years, that's for sure. https://www.fao.org/in-action/action-against-desertification/overview/desertification-and-land-degradation/en/

This particular climate scientist feels that human activities have a very small effect on the worlds deserts.

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2019/09/18/great-green-wall-sahara-desertification/

kassy

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #10 on: January 21, 2023, 03:05:04 PM »
It is specifically about the Sahara and the Green wall. In many other places there have been succesfull projects but how well they will hold up against the future changes remains to be seen.

In a way it is in the list but hiding in several categories.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

Alexander555

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #11 on: January 21, 2023, 05:18:53 PM »
I think one of the most impotant things is not even in it, desertification. It is related to the water crisis and the loss of biodiversity. But how many years can you turn 12 million hectares into desert before you get into deep deep deep troubles ? Not for many years, that's for sure. https://www.fao.org/in-action/action-against-desertification/overview/desertification-and-land-degradation/en/

This particular climate scientist feels that human activities have a very small effect on the worlds deserts.

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2019/09/18/great-green-wall-sahara-desertification/

For the land turned into desert today it's probably all caused by humans. Long term deforestation, some population growth, some more catle....And nothing properly managed for hundreds of years. Not even today. If you put one of todays heat domes on top of that. And for most places you don't have to count on pioneer forests. Not even in Spain. Or they would have been there already a long time ago. Even over here it will become harder just to count on nature to recover. We have some wild chestnut trees next to the roads. I picked up some of them, to use them to enrich the soil a little bit . But they all started to grow. So i let them grow to use the brunches for my wood wall. The first year ( a wet year) They grew maybe 10 inches. Lost year not a single inch. Half way summer they dropped their leaves because it was so dry. And most of the last years have been very dry. A chestnut is not a pioneer tree. But a bone dry soil will make it only harder for a pioneer to grow. And that's already pretty far from the equator. So it's all going to need more help to recover.

The Walrus

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #12 on: January 24, 2023, 05:15:49 PM »
I think one of the most impotant things is not even in it, desertification. It is related to the water crisis and the loss of biodiversity. But how many years can you turn 12 million hectares into desert before you get into deep deep deep troubles ? Not for many years, that's for sure. https://www.fao.org/in-action/action-against-desertification/overview/desertification-and-land-degradation/en/

This particular climate scientist feels that human activities have a very small effect on the worlds deserts.

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2019/09/18/great-green-wall-sahara-desertification/

For the land turned into desert today it's probably all caused by humans. Long term deforestation, some population growth, some more catle....And nothing properly managed for hundreds of years. Not even today. If you put one of todays heat domes on top of that. And for most places you don't have to count on pioneer forests. Not even in Spain. Or they would have been there already a long time ago. Even over here it will become harder just to count on nature to recover. We have some wild chestnut trees next to the roads. I picked up some of them, to use them to enrich the soil a little bit . But they all started to grow. So i let them grow to use the brunches for my wood wall. The first year ( a wet year) They grew maybe 10 inches. Lost year not a single inch. Half way summer they dropped their leaves because it was so dry. And most of the last years have been very dry. A chestnut is not a pioneer tree. But a bone dry soil will make it only harder for a pioneer to grow. And that's already pretty far from the equator. So it's all going to need more help to recover.

That may be true for certian regions on a smaller scale.  On a larger scale, using the Sahara in particular, desertification is controlled mainly by the regional climate, although vegetation can have important impacts and feedbacks.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332220301007

kassy

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #13 on: January 24, 2023, 08:35:26 PM »
It´s both. The large scale limits are set by climate but we farm what we can. Farming monocrops every year leads to soil erosion and nutrient depletion and this can give you deserts too. And of course we use many rivers for hydro which also does not help (see Iraq).

We can change this but these means changing our policies. 
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

The Walrus

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #14 on: January 24, 2023, 09:55:04 PM »
It´s both. The large scale limits are set by climate but we farm what we can. Farming monocrops every year leads to soil erosion and nutrient depletion and this can give you deserts too. And of course we use many rivers for hydro which also does not help (see Iraq).

We can change this but these means changing our policies.

Changing policies and climate have led to a decrease in desert area so far this century.

"The majority of our identified deserts across the globe did not show expanding trends from 2000 to 2019. This finding was consistent with the results from previous studies that showed general decreasing trends of global desertification and dryland degradation in recent decades."

https://www.authorea.com/doi/full/10.22541/au.164552330.06546725/v1

"In both hot and cold deserts, the vegetation cover diversity changing trends in surrounding desert areas were consistently the strongest predictors. The following four most important predictors were cattle density, initial other vegetation coverage, initial bare coverage and initial precipitation level in hot deserts."

"The 2019 IPCC special report, which used the trend in annual maximum NDVI from 1982 to 2015 to examine the ecosystem condition changes in global drylands, also found that the ecosystem condition was improving even in arid and hyper-arid regions (Mirzabaev et al., 2019). From the perspective of future projections, Berg & McColl (2021) predicted no global drylands expansion by the end of the 21st century through an ecohydrological index under the RCP 8.5 scenario. The general stable and shrinking desert trends across the globe found in our study are also in accordance with this trajectory."

Those areas that did show an increase in desert area, unsustainable agricultural practicies and overgrazing were the main causes.


Alexander555

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #15 on: January 24, 2023, 09:58:16 PM »
This is the annual rainfall for Argentina. The last 20 years they are getting less rain. The years before it was going up. The last 20 years they  have become an agro powerhouse. So are they getting less rain because of climate change ? Because in general you read that a warmer world makes the air to hold more moisture. That would explain the rise before the last 20 years. In general you read that places become a desert because of climate change. And i'm not talking about changing wind patterns. It's a big difference. Getting less rain because of climate change. Or getting less rain because you become a desert.  The 2th would be good news in some way. If you make a chanse, you will get some help from nature. If it's because of climate change, your stuck in that long term trend. 

https://tradingeconomics.com/argentina/precipitation

Alexander555

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #16 on: January 25, 2023, 07:29:48 AM »
If it's the first one, you have one big problem. If it's the second one, you have two big problems. And even if you solve the first one, by capturing carbon  or using less fossil fuels. You will still become a desert. Maybe at a slower speed. With all that extra heat it's a bad time to become a desert.

Alexander555

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #17 on: January 25, 2023, 07:56:42 AM »
With a little luck the next years will become an eye opener for many people. Because losses are going to accumulate at a much higher rate. It will become more critical at many places.

oren

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #18 on: January 25, 2023, 10:35:02 AM »
My vote is on dis- and mis-information applied to a society that doesn't have cohesion.

Every path forward blocked by random conspiracy theories

It'll stop solutions every time.
Indeed.

kassy

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #19 on: January 25, 2023, 02:31:31 PM »
This is the annual rainfall for Argentina.

https://tradingeconomics.com/argentina/precipitation

On the link you can expand the years and as you can see it is also dry in 1920-30. So the explanation is more complicated if you want to work it out or simple if you go for not enough data.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

The Walrus

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #20 on: January 25, 2023, 03:39:53 PM »
This is the annual rainfall for Argentina.

https://tradingeconomics.com/argentina/precipitation

On the link you can expand the years and as you can see it is also dry in 1920-30. So the explanation is more complicated if you want to work it out or simple if you go for not enough data.

Eyeballing the graph in the link, the rainfall looks to be about:

1920-40:  ~525 mm
1940-60:  ~570
1960-80:  ~580
1980-00:  ~630
2000-20:  ~600

The wettest years were (in order) 2002, 1983, 1991, 2000, 2001, and 1993.
The driest years were 1937, 1923, 1962, 1929, 1935, and 1988.

Overall, precipitation has increased over the past century, although there are indications that the trend may be starting to reverse.

Alexander555

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #21 on: January 25, 2023, 08:14:43 PM »
That average can hide large differences. For the US average precipitation is rising. In reality i think the east is getting wetter, and the west drier. Many of these places with long droughts don't show it in that average number. Like Ethiopia, probably the highlands get more.  https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/precipitation

Sebastian Jones

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #22 on: January 26, 2023, 08:18:30 PM »
If average temperatures are rising while average precipitation amount is flat, declining or very slowly rising, increased evaporations-transpiration will result in effective drying.

The Walrus

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #23 on: January 26, 2023, 08:25:14 PM »
If average temperatures are rising while average precipitation amount is flat, declining or very slowly rising, increased evaporations-transpiration will result in effective drying.

For the most part, both temperature and precipitation are rising.  Although I cannot say whether the relative rates of each result in more or less evaporations-transpiration.

Human Habitat Index

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #24 on: January 27, 2023, 12:14:16 AM »
If average temperatures are rising while average precipitation amount is flat, declining or very slowly rising, increased evaporations-transpiration will result in effective drying.

For the most part, both temperature and precipitation are rising.  Although I cannot say whether the relative rates of each result in more or less evaporations-transpiration.

There is the issue of Vapour Pressure Deficit to take into account.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51857-8
There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is contempt prior to investigation. - Herbert Spencer

kassy

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #25 on: January 27, 2023, 04:35:52 PM »
Interesting:

Quote
Abstract
We show a recent increasing trend in Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) over tropical South America in dry months with values well beyond the range of trends due to natural variability of the climate system defined in both the undisturbed Preindustrial climate and the climate over 850–1850 perturbed with natural external forcing. This trend is systematic in the southeast Amazon but driven by episodic droughts (2005, 2010, 2015) in the northwest, with the highest recoded VPD since 1979 for the 2015 drought. The univariant detection analysis shows that the observed increase in VPD cannot be explained by greenhouse-gas-induced (GHG) radiative warming alone. The bivariate attribution analysis demonstrates that forcing by elevated GHG levels and biomass burning aerosols are attributed as key causes for the observed VPD increase. We further show that There is a negative trend in evaporative fraction in the southeast Amazon, where lack of atmospheric moisture, reduced precipitation together with higher incoming solar radiation (~7% decade−1 cloud-cover reduction) influences the partitioning of surface energy fluxes towards less evapotranspiration. The VPD increase combined with the decrease in evaporative fraction are the first indications of positive climate feedback mechanisms, which we show that will continue and intensify in the course of unfolding anthropogenic climate change.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

BeeKnees

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #26 on: January 27, 2023, 05:07:51 PM »
Changes in rainfall over Argentina can be partly explained by the hadley cell expanding

https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-signals/hadley-cell-expansion#more

As the earth warms the Hadley cell expands, pushing the drier descending air  to move towards the Poles. 

With most of Argentina being around 30-40 degrees south it will be significantly effected in the same way parts of Spain are drying as the Hadley cell expands.
The Russian State has embarked on a genocide of Ukrainians that is supported by the owner of this forum

Alexander555

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #27 on: January 29, 2023, 01:04:59 PM »

trm1958

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #28 on: January 29, 2023, 02:24:47 PM »
Firefighters with flamethrowers. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/1/29/greening-ourselves-to-extinction
“And ic conclusion, while the End of the World scenario is rife with horrific suffering, it also poses an excellent opportunity for a high return on investment”

dnem

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Re: WEF: Global Risk Report 2021
« Reply #29 on: January 29, 2023, 03:03:17 PM »
 :-\

vox_mundi

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WEF: Global Risk Report 2024
« Reply #30 on: January 10, 2024, 05:36:14 PM »
The People Paid to Spot Risks See High Chance of ‘Global Catastrophe’ Within 10 Years
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/10/business/wef-global-risks-report/index.html

Humanity faces a perilous future, marked by an explosion of disinformation turbocharged by artificial intelligence and the devastating effects of climate change.

The gloomy outlook comes from an annual survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) of people paid to identify and manage global risks.

According to the report published Wednesday, nearly two-thirds of respondents expect an “elevated chance of global catastrophes” in the next decade. About 30% expect the same in the next two years.

Over a 10-year horizon, environmental risks including biodiversity loss and critical change to the Earth's systems topped the rankings, with misinformation, disinformation and adverse outcomes of artificial intelligence (AI) just behind.

Bad to Worse

Results from the survey “highlight a predominantly negative outlook for the world in the short term that is expected to worsen over the long term,” it added.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Global Risks Report 2024
https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2024/digest/
https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2024/

The Global Risks Report explores some of the most severe risks we may face over the next decade, against a backdrop of rapid technological change, economic uncertainty, a warming planet and conflict. As cooperation comes under pressure, weakened economies and societies may only require the smallest shock to edge past the tipping point of resilience.

2024 Report: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2024.pdf

A deteriorating global outlook

Looking back at the events of 2023, plenty of developments captured the attention of people around the world – while others received minimal scrutiny. Vulnerable populations grappled with lethal conflicts, from Sudan to Gaza and Israel, alongside record-breaking heat conditions, drought, wildfires and flooding. Societal discontent was palpable in many countries, with news cycles dominated by polarization, violent protests, riots and strikes. Although globally destabilizing consequences – such as those seen at the initial outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war or the COVID-19 pandemic – were largely avoided, the longer-term outlook for these developments could bring further global shocks.

As we enter 2024, 2023-2024 GRPS results highlight a predominantly negative outlook for the world over the next two years that is expected to worsen over the next decade (Figure A). Surveyed in September 2023, the majority of respondents (54%) anticipate some instability and a moderate risk of global catastrophes, while another 30% expect even more turbulent conditions. The outlook is markedly more negative over the 10-year time horizon, with nearly two-thirds of respondents expecting a stormy or turbulent outlook.



 Environmental risks could hit the point of no return

Environmental risks continue to dominate the risks landscape over all three time frames. Two-thirds of GRPS respondents rank Extreme weather as the top risk most likely to present a material crisis on a global scale in 2024 (Figure B), with the warming phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle projected to intensify and persist until May this year. It is also seen as the second-most severe risk over the two-year time frame and similar to last year’s rankings, nearly all environmental risks feature among the top 10 over the longer term (Figure C).





As polarization grows and technological risks remain unchecked, ‘truth’ will come under pressure

Societal polarization features among the top three risks over both the current and two-year time horizons, ranking #9 over the longer term. In addition, Societal polarization and Economic downturn are seen as the most interconnected – and therefore influential – risks in the global risks network (Figure D), as drivers and possible consequences of numerous risks.



Economic uncertainty will weigh heavily across most markets, but capital will be the costliest for the most vulnerable countries. Climate-vulnerable or conflict-prone countries stand to be increasingly locked out of much-needed digital and physical infrastructure, trade and green investments and related economic opportunities. As the adaptive capacities of these fragile states erodes further, related societal and environmental impacts are amplified.

Similarly, the convergence of technological advances and geopolitical dynamics will likely create a new set of winners and losers across advanced and developing economies alike (Chapter 2.4: AI in charge). If commercial incentives and geopolitical imperatives, rather than public interest, remain the primary drivers of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and other frontier technologies, the digital gap between high- and low-income countries will drive a stark disparity in the distribution of related benefits – and risks. Vulnerable countries and communities would be left further behind, digitally isolated from turbocharged AI breakthroughs impacting economic productivity, finance, climate, education and healthcare, as well as related job creation.

Simmering geopolitical tensions combined with technology will drive new security risks

As both a product and driver of state fragility, Interstate armed conflict is a new entrant into the top risk rankings over the two-year horizon (Figure C). As the focus of major powers becomes stretched across multiple fronts, conflict contagion is a key concern (Chapter 1.4: Rise in conflict). There are several frozen conflicts at risk of heating up in the near term, due to spillover threats or growing state fragility.

This becomes an even more worrying risk in the context of recent technological advances. In the absence of concerted collaboration, a globally fragmented approach to regulating frontier technologies is unlikely to prevent the spread of its most dangerous capabilities and, in fact, may encourage proliferation (Chapter 2.4: AI in charge). Over the longer-term, technological advances, including in generative AI, will enable a range of non-state and state actors to access a superhuman breadth of knowledge to conceptualize and develop new tools of disruption and conflict, from malware to biological weapons.

In this environment, the lines between the state, organized crime, private militia and terrorist groups would blur further.

Over the next decade, as dissatisfaction with the continued dominance of the Global North grows, an evolving set of states will seek a more pivotal influence on the global stage across multiple domains, asserting their power in military, technological and economic terms.

As states in the Global South bear the brunt of a changing climate, the aftereffects of pandemic-era crises and geoeconomic rifts between major powers, growing alignment and political alliances within this historically disparate group of countries could increasingly shape security dynamics, including implications for high-stakes hotspots: the Russia-Ukraine war, the Middle East conflict and tensions over Taiwan (Chapter 1.4: Rise in conflict). Coordinated efforts to isolate “rogue” states are likely to be increasingly futile, while international governance and peacekeeping efforts shown to be ineffective at “policing” conflict could be sidelined.

 
« Last Edit: January 10, 2024, 08:46:08 PM by vox_mundi »
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late