The economy has dominated the headlines for years, but unforeseen consequences of life sciences and climate change mitigation are also beginning to weigh heavily on people's minds. The World Economic Forum experts and industry leaders have gauged the likelihood and potential impact of 50 risks of global significance (the 2013 Global Risks Report came out in January). We have arranged each risk according to how much views have changed in the past year (with the biggest combined increase in estimated likelihood and potential impact at the upper left of the page); orange shading highlights science and technology concerns. Population, species loss, weapons of mass destruction, pollution and information technology figure prominently. Climate change, including worries over greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation, also factor in significantly.
Credit: Jan Willem Tulp; SOURCE: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
Fred Guterl is the executive editor of Scientific American and author of The Fate of the Species (Bloomsbury). Guterl is former deputy editor of Newsweek. His writing and editing have contributed to numerous awards and nominations from the American Society of Magazine Editors. His article "Riddles in the Sand," in Discover, was named best magazine article in 1998 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and his Newsweek article "The Wasteland," on Russia's plan to accept the world's nuclear waste, was honored by the Overseas Press Club for environmental writing. Follow Fred Guterl on Twitter
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