Future shocks: 10 emerging risks that threaten our world

It rocked the global economy and threatened to destroy the financial systems that we rely on. Ten years on, some countries are still picking up the pieces.

According to The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks
Report 2018 these are the worlds biggest risks. 

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, we asked ourselves one question over and over again: why didn’t we see it coming?

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2018 says that, in our increasingly complex and interconnected world, this type of shock may become more likely.

Read Alex Gray’s story from the World Economic Forum -“Future shocks: 10 emerging risks that threaten our world.”

Trump calls for some 'good old global warming' as US experiences bad weather

He once dismissed it as a “hoax” created by the Chinese to destroy American jobs, but right now Donald Trump is pining for some of that “good old global warming”.

 Climate scientists have long warned against using individual
weather events to assess global warming, but now
 Donald Trump wants some "good old global warming".

While on holiday in Florida on Thursday, the US president wondered whether global warming might not be such a problem after all.

As severe cold and record amounts of snow sweep across the US east coast, Trump wrote on Twitter that the country “could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against”. 

“Bundle up!” he added.

Read Michael McGowan’s story on The Guardian - “Trump calls for some 'good old global warming' as US experiences bad weather.”

The Smog Chancellor by George Monbiot

Which living person has done most to destroy the natural world and the future wellbeing of humanity? Donald Trump will soon be the correct answer, when the full force of his havoc has been felt. But for now I would place another name in the frame. Angela Merkel.

George Monbiot.

What? Have I lost my mind? Angela Merkel, the “climate chancellor”? The person who, as German environment minister, brokered the first UN climate agreement, through sheer force of will? The Chancellor who persuaded the G7 leaders to promise to phase out fossil fuels by the end of this century? The architect of Germany’s Energiewende – its famous energy transition? Yes, the very same.

Unlike Donald Trump, she has no malicious intent. She did not set out to destroy the agreements she helped to create. But the Earth’s systems do not respond to mission statements or speeches or targets. 

They respond to hard fact. What counts, and should be judged, as she seeks a fourth term as German Chancellor in the elections on Sunday, is what is done, not what is said. On this metric her performance has been a planetary disaster.

Read the story by Guardian columnist, George Monbiot -“The Smog Chancellor.”

Floating Plastic Pollution from Europe and the US Is Accumulating in the Arctic

Plastic in its many forms is one of the obvious impacts of humanity on Earth; it’s everywhere and virtually impossible to destroy.

Polar Bears in the Arctic are often in the news and
this time it is because of plastic. While Arctic species
might well be troubled by plastic so is the huge range
 of species in Australia/'s many rivers and streams.

Frequent publicity is about the troubles arising from plastics in such exotic places as the Arctic, as discussed here, but equally this human construct is causing equally serious troubles in rivers and streams throughout Australia.

The low population of the Arctic Circle means little plastic waste is generated there. However, a new study has shown that the Greenland and Barents Seas (east of Greenland and north of Scandinavia) are accumulating large amounts of plastic debris that is carried and trapped there by ocean currents.

The new study, published today in Science Advances, found that the Greenland and Barents seas have accumulated hundreds of tons of plastic debris composed of around 300 billion pieces, mainly fragments around the size of a grain of rice. The vast majority of these fragments originate form the North Atlantic.

The team behind the study is composed of researchers from eight countries, led by Professor Andrés Cózar from the University of Cadiz in Spain, and including Dr Erik van Sebille from the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London.

Read the Science and Technology Research News story - “Floating Plastic Pollution from Europe and the US Is Accumulating in the Arctic.”

Capitalism has brought many benefits, but at a measureable cost

Capitalism deserves much praise and is responsible for many wonderful things, but those benefits have come at a price, among them, a seriously damaged atmosphere.

The quartet of Alexander Jung, Horand Knaup, Samiha Shafy and Bernhard Zand have discussed both the value and disadvantages of capitalism in an article on Spiegel Online International.

In their story headed: “The Warming World: Is Capitalism Destroying Our Planet?” they say humans are full of contradictions, including the urge to destroy things they love. Like our planet.