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The Global Risks Report 2021

Future hazards are not just natural, but societal.

As we look to the future of our risk landscape, we typically might be calling out climate change, increasing natural disaster frequency and future costs. This would be the "typical" report we'd expect. However, risks go way beyond what is happening in nature to the changes happening all around us today, with society here in the United States and around the world. See the description below and also the link to the report.

"The 16th edition of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report analyses the risks from societal fractures—manifested through persistent and emerging risks to human health, rising unemployment, widening digital divides, youth disillusionment, and geopolitical fragmentation. Businesses risk a disorderly shakeout which can exclude large cohorts of workers and companies from the markets of the future. Environmental degradation—still an existential threat to humanity—risks intersecting with societal fractures to bring about severe consequences. Yet, with the world more attuned to risk, lessons can be drawn to strengthen response and resilience. In 2020, the risk of a pandemic became reality. As governments, businesses, and societies grapple with COVID-19, societal cohesion is more important than ever."

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.