Even for the world's economic elite, the future is looking pretty bleak.
The World Economic Forum on Wednesday released its annual Global Risks Report, which found that global leaders are more concerned about issues such as inflation and food security than climate change.
Based on a survey of 1,200 risk experts and industry leaders, the report found that respondents identified climate change is the biggest challenge facing the globe in the longer-run, but that the cost of living is the more immediate concern for most countries. "Cost of living dominates global risks in the next two years while climate action failure dominates the next decade," read the report.
The two challenges are related. Failure to address more immediate concerns related to food security and inflation, the group wrote, could distract governments from seriously addressing climate change.
Indeed, four out of the report's top-10 long-term challenges were climate-related:
“A failure to mitigate climate change is ranked as one of the most severe threats in the short term, but is the global risk we are seen to be the least prepared for,” the report said.
The report stressed that countries might not be able to handle all of these challenges at once, forcing them to prioritize some and neglect others: “The coming years will present tough trade-offs for governments facing competing concerns for society, the environment and security."
None of this bodes well for the already high levels of economic inequality in the world.
“The resulting new economic era may be one of growing divergence between rich and poor countries,” the report said, “and the first rollback in human development in decades.”
The group released the report ahead of its annual gathering at the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos next week.
A new law in California will raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour next year, an acknowledgment from the state's Democratic leaders that most of the often overlooked workforce are the primary earners for their low-income households.
From Sunday, workers at the main United States base in Antarctica will no longer be able to walk into a bar and order a beer, after the U.S. federal agency that oversees the research program decided to stop serving alcohol.
House Republicans launched a formal impeachment hearing Thursday against President Joe Biden, promising to “provide accountability” as they probe the family finances and business dealings of his son Hunter and make their case to the public, colleagues and a skeptical Senate.
The FBI and other government agencies should be required to get court approval before reviewing the communications of U.S. citizens collected through a secretive foreign surveillance program, a sharply divided privacy oversight board recommended on Thursday.
The federal government is just days away from a shutdown that will disrupt many services, squeeze workers and roil politics as Republicans in the House, fueled by hard-right demands, force a confrontation over federal spending.
The Biden administration is finalizing a new rule that would cut federal funding for colleges that leave graduates with low pay and high debt after graduating.
The Biden administration is finalizing a new rule that would cut federal funding for colleges that leave graduates with low pay and high debt after graduating.
The second Republican debate last night saw several candidates try and stray away from frontrunner former president Donald Trump. Jonathan Harris, columnist and political analyst, broke down some of the most memorable moments of the debate.
