Global Outlook: Cloudy With a Chance of Disaster

The 20th edition of the World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report paints a gloomy picture of the near-term future, as increasingly polarized societies face rising geopolitical tensions, mounting environmental challenges and technological advancements that have the potential to further sow division by spreading misinformation in every way, shape or form.

Just 11 percent of the 900 international experts surveyed for the report would describe their near-term outlook for the world as "stable", meaning they see a low risk of global catastrophes in the next two years. Looking at the 10-year horizon, that share falls further to 8 percent, while the share of respondents seeing very high or elevated risks for global catastrophes climbs from 5 and 31 percent, in the short term, to 17 and 45 percent in the long term.