The world seems more vulnerable due to risks related to the financial crisis and natural disasters, today warned World Economic Forum (WEF) in its report on global risks, published in Geneva, according to AFP.
Risks related to the financial crisis “which continue”, divert attention “from climate change, given that extreme weather events are ongoing,” wrote experts from the WEF, which organizes annually in late January the Forum in Davos. This report is based on a survey conducted on about 1,000 experts and decision makers.
After a 2012 marked by Sandy hurricane and floods in China, experts believe that the increased emission of greenhouse gases is particularly worrying and denounce world’s failure to “adapt to climate change”, which involves an environmental risk with “effects that will be more prominent in the next decade.” According to Lee Howell, the WEF managing director and responsible for the report, “national resilience to global risks should be a priority.”
Axel Lehmann, who supervises the Swiss company Zurich Risk Insurance Group, said that now is the “time for action” because of “increased costs related to events like Hurricane Sandy, of immense dangers targeting island nations and coastal communities and the absence of solutions to emission of greenhouse gases “.
According to John Drzik, CEO of Oliver Wyman Group, an international consulting firm, “two storms, one environmental and the other economic, will eventually collide, if we do not allocate resources to reduce the increasing risk of severe weather events. The prosperity of future generations is likely to be threatened. ”
Experts from the WEF also pointed out a new phenomenon, known as “cyber wild fire” started on the Internet by events as “a movie on Youtube critical of Islam” that caused big riots.
“In a world where the traditional guarding role played by the media loses its importance”, it is necessary to reflect on the means of fighting these “fires”, says WEF. Another risk denounced in 2013 by WEF is the health marked by “antibiotic resistance” that “may give a blow to our health insurance system.” Also regarding the health, WEF reveals the higher risk of pandemics spreading, “favored by a hyper-connected world.”
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