Geographers are very much interested in the future and the nature of risk.
The World Economic Forum publishes an annual report on perceptions of global risks. The 2024 report can be viewed here, along with some shareables.
From the preamble.
Underlying geopolitical tensions combined with the eruption of active hostilities in multiple regions is contributing to an unstable global order characterized by polarizing narratives, eroding trust and insecurity. At the same time, countries are grappling with the impacts of record-breaking extreme weather, as climate-change adaptation efforts and resources fall short of the type, scale and intensity of climate-related events already taking place. Cost-of-living pressures continue to bite, amidst persistently elevated inflation and interest rates and continued economic uncertainty in much of the world. Despondent headlines are borderless, shared regularly and widely, and a sense of frustration at the status quo is increasingly palpable. Together, this leaves ample room for accelerating risks – like misinformation and disinformation – to propagate in societies that have already been politically and economically weakened in recent years.Just as natural ecosystems can be pushed to the limit and become something fundamentally new; such systemic shifts are also taking place across other spheres: geostrategic, demographic and technological. This year, we explore the rise of global risks against the backdrop of these “structural forces” as well as the tectonic clashes between them. The next set of global conditions may not necessarily be better or worse than the last, but the transition will not be an easy one.
A person could get quite depressed looking at the ten year outlook below...
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