In our search for interesting, challenging and critical perspectives on contemporary humanism, we locate articles and information published via other venues that we think HumanistFreedoms.com readers may enjoy.
Following is a collection of information pertaining to global risks in 2022
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What does the World Economic Forum Have to Say?
Based in Geneva, the World Economic Forum describes itself as the premier organization fostering cooperation between the public and private sectors of the economy. WEF claims to be independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests; it also claims to adhere to a stakeholder principle which requires organizations to be accountable to all parts of society. The 50th annual meeting of the WEF was held in 2020 and was titled “The Great Reset” and which garnered some attention and concern regarding the idea and agenda that it advocated.
On January 11, 2022 – the WEF has published the 17th iteration of its Global Risks Report. It may be reasonable to adopt a critical eye when studying a document of this type, but it is also reasonable to consider the 117 pages a valuable source for informing a humanist perspective on the world and our human events. If wading through 117 pages is a bit much, WEF provides a key findings page. Or here’s a few infographics.
As a big picture overview, WEF enumerates the following existential risks as a kind of top-ten. In pondering this list, it is necessary to remember that this is the World Economic Forum’s report as opposed to the “World Something-Else Forum”. What might this list look like for a World Humanist Forum?
Climate changes concerns and issues takes up a considerable and leading place in the WEF’s 2022 report. In the below infographic, WEF provides global temperature scenarios for the coming 80-years. Should this inform a humanist’s priorities?
The report also provides a series of chapter-ending, what-if-styled “Shocks to Reflect Upon” that may be worth more than casual consideration:
Identifying, assessing and addressing risk is, of course, an inherently “what if” exercise. Anybody undertaking risk assessment may be vulnerable to accusations of doom-saying (or whatever term one may care to adopt) – but that des not mean that it isn’t an important exercise.
WEF also provides a “top five” risk for each national economy based executive opinion:
Noteworthy: Maybe the editor’s old eyes couldn’t find it, but there didn’t seem to be an entry for Afghanistan, Syria, in the chart of Top 5 national risks. What does that omission imply?
What Does Export Development Canada Have to Say?
Export Development Canada is a Canadian crown corporation “dedicated to helping Canadian companies of all sizes succeed on the world stage. We equip them with the tools they need – the trade knowledge, financial solutions, equity, insurance, and connections – to grow their business with confidence. This in turn, creates jobs and increases prosperity at home.“
In 2020, the EDC stated the top global risks as:
- A prolonged COVID 19 pandemic
- USA-China competition
- Global protectionism
- Rapid increase of “sovereign” debt
- Surge in corporate debt
- A global depression
- American political paralysis
- US Isolationism
- Social unrest
- Cyberwar
What Does the Global Challenges Foundation Have to Say?
The Global Challenges Foundation was founded in 2012 “by the Swedish financial analyst and author Laszlo Szombatfalvy. Its goal is to stimulate ideas on how to develop new decision-making models, able to better and more equitably reduce the major global catastrophic risks that threaten humanity, or even eliminate them. The foundation’s work is made possible by a donation from Laszlo Szombatfalvy of SEK 500 million (approximately USD 53 million).“
According to GCF, their mission is to “prevent, or at least reduce the probability, of a catastrophe that would cause the death of over 10% of humanity, or cause damage on a similar scale. This is known as a global catastrophic risk.” The top risks identified by this organization are:
- climate change
- weapons of mass destruction
- ecological collapse
- artificial intelligence,
- asteroid impact
- pandemics
- solar geoengineering
- supervolcanic eruption
- unknown risks
Citations, References And Other Reading
- Featured Photo Courtesy of: https://www.farzanawahidy.com/portfolio-item/burqa/
- https://www.weforum.org/about/world-economic-forum
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Reset
- https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2022.pdf
- https://www.edc.ca/
- https://globalchallenges.org/
The views, opinions and analyses expressed in the articles on Humanist Freedoms are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the publishers.
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