In this forum, we would like you to discuss, in your opinion, what are the highest risks today:
- to your country
- to the world
We asked this question also our students at Kaunas university of Technology.
Watch what they've told us:
Greatest risk to our country? geopolitical - changes to the political landscape in the USA (our neighbour to the south); environmental - climate change, pollution (air, water), deforestation; economic (USA gov't has big effect on our economy - free trade deal is under renegotiation; housing costs are very high); technological - antibiotic resistence; cyberattacks; social/societal - not sure - maybe jobs - and mechanization of work - people are being replaced by machines; jobs are being located elsewhere - puts people out of jobs; loss of jobs to other countries (globalization).
Globally - pollution - air/water/soils - loss of arable lands; climate change - affects people's health, livelihood, homes, ability to grow food, diseases, virus/bacteria; and wars and conflicts - displacement of people (destabilizing), destruction of infrastructure, industry, crops not sown, power and water utilities, educational opportunities - huge impact - with ripple effects outwards.
The highest risk in my opinion are natural disasters.
Risk that are beyond our control.
So far risk has been defined as a matter solely relevant to humans. I am very curious to hear other opinions on the risks that non-human animals face nowadays. We are, after all, merely a tiny minority on this planet. For example, with each year we are breeding more and more sentient animals (e.g. 1 billion pigs, 1.4 billion cows and 21 billion chickens) in order to raise them for slaughter. Following the classical risk evaluation: the likelihood is 100%, whereas the impact is off the charts too, when taking individuals into account. Anyone else ever got the feeling that risk science is too anthropocentric?
To answer the question: from my experience, I see that the biggest risk we all face on this planet is human ignorance.
Lukas.
One of the highest risks in Nigeria is ethno-religious in nature. It is the biggest threat to integrity and empathy, which are two major drivers to accountability. Lack of accountability forms is the bane of Nigeria's current reality. Ethnic and religious sentiments undermine any effort at sanitizing the polity and the country from corruption, violence and economic crisis. The next big thing to this is EMPATHY.
The highest risk to my country is the decreasing population. There are lots of people that are leaving the country every year, the birth amount is decreasing and the number of deaths is increasing.
The highest risk to the world is, of course, consumption. It creates such problems as pollution and climate changes, forests' cuts and so on.
Despite the global threat of the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging through nations, inclusively Zimbabwe, there are also some risks that the country is affected by. Firstly, the risk of accountability, lack of it rather, a disease that has been spreading through corporate, non-governmental sectors through to the political leadership and the black market as well. People have been greedy and the corruption that is existing in the country has damaged the facilitation of good quality service provision, justice and moral livelihood of Zimbabweans. Another risk that the nation has is the financial instability, not only looking at the steady inflation of prices but also the debts that cripple the country, hence hindering it from receiving any additional financial support from global repositories.
For rest of the world, is the climate change...glaciers melting, veld fires, high temperatures causing heat waves, rising sea levels causing tsunamis and finally storms and cyclones causing mass destruction in several countries worldwide.
For rest of the world, is the climate change...glaciers melting, veld fires, high temperatures causing heat waves, rising sea levels causing tsunamis and finally storms and cyclones causing mass destruction in several countries worldwide.