“Anything can happen in our post-pandemic era,” the WEF warns
The world must brace for “an era of shock events,” according to the World Economic Forum.
In a new opinion piece posted on the Forum’s website, Professor Maha Hosain Aziz, of New York University, says that the coming decade will be “shaped by heightened global risk and unpredictable shock events.”
“Anything can happen in our post-pandemic era,” Aziz claims.
He goes on to list three potential “shock events” that could happen soon.
The first is the emergence of a “new global extremist group,” which the professor claims could use AI to create a new kind of terrorism.
“With the world distracted with multiple major wars and leadership in decline, this could be an opportunistic time for a new extremist group to make its mark—and maybe not face as many consequences. Perhaps, it will even leverage AI tools to kick off a new phase of terrorism.”
The next potential “shock event” is a deliberate “cyber pandemic.” Aziz points to the recent Crowdstrike outage, which crippled computer systems worldwide, as an example of the chaos and damage a large-scale cyberattack could cause. The outage cost Fortune 500 companies $5.4 billion alone.
“Imagine if a bad actor did this—on purpose and an even grander scale?”
Professor Aziz’s final prediction is that a small island nation could sink under the ocean due to climate change.
“The COP28 plan to phase out fossil fuels may take decades and it’s unclear if world leaders will follow through.What’s more probable is that in the meantime certain island nations (who emit only 0.3% of global emissions) will keep fighting their cause, whether it is through international law or new climate funds. But, if these islands do succumb to climate change, sinking a lot faster than we expect, how will climate activists and world leaders react?”
Other predictions made by Professor Aziz include the dispersal of global power away from the US, which is “burdened with global wars and domestic challenges;” that the “recurrent crisis of political legitimacy,” in the US and abroad, will deepen; and there will be a “more complex global mental health crisis.”
In 2022, WEF founder Klaus Schwab warned that the world must prepare for “the frightening scenario of a comprehensive cyber attack,” which would make the COVID-19 pandemic seem like a “small disturbance” by comparison.
