The top five risks to humanity are recently published in the Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Top five risks

• An important finding of the report is that today’s younger generation, consisting of “Millenials” born after 1980 have ranked environmental risks higher than other older respondents in the short- and long-terms.
• According to the report, the top five risks by likelihood over the next decade are:

1. Extreme weather events like floods and storms
2. Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
3. Major natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and geomagnetic storms
4. Major biodiversity losses and ecosystem collapse
5. Human-made environmental damage and disasters

Top 5 risks by severity of impact over the next 10 years

• Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
• Weapons of mass destruction
• Major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
• Extreme weather events (e.g. floods, storms, etc.)
• Water crises

Top most strongly connected global risks

• Extreme weather events + failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
• Large-scale cyber-attacks + breakdown of critical information infrastructure and networks
• High structural unemployment or underemployment + adverse consequences of technological advances
• Major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse + failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
• Food crises + extreme weather events

Other risks

• The report also warned about the increasing economic and societal costs due to non-communicable diseases and the lack of research on vaccines and drug resistance to address the threat of pandemics in the recent future.
• “Economic confrontations” and “domestic political polarization” are significant short-term risks in 2020, the report said.
• This is a warning for the global South including India and Africa where social unrest has seen a rise. For example, unrest has grown among India’s youth.

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