The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a non-profit international organization for public-private cooperation. The organization provides a platform where the world’s 1,000 leading companies engage in projects and initiatives that help shape a better future for the world.
If you’re not familiar with the World Economic Forum, you should be. They publish informative reports about different topics that affect the global economy. If you’re a business leader, the reports from World Economic Forum can help you plan ahead.
Top 5 Global Risks are Environmental
Last January 2020, the World Economic Forum published an annual report of the top five global risks. For the first time since the beginning of the first study, the top five global risks in terms of likelihood are environmental.
- Extreme weather like floods and storms
- Climate action failures like climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Natural disasters like tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and geomagnetic storms
- Biodiversity loss like the extinction of species and ecosystem collage
- Human-made environmental disasters like oil spills and lack of biohazard waste disposal
Since last year, we have seen environmental disasters happen left and right. There was the significant Amazon rainforest last 2019, the Australia wildfires that lasted till early 2020, and the infamous California wildfires, among others. Additionally, the Arctic wildfires this Summer 2020 has set new emission records. From January 1st to August 31st of 2020, fires in the Arctic Circle have reached 244 megatons of carbon compared to 181 megatons of carbon produced for 2019.
Another environmental risk is the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, which started with biodiversity and improper & unclean food trade hygiene. We still hadn’t won the Coronavirus pandemic battle due to the government’s inadequate response and the lack of community discipline.
What Can We Do: Invest in Purpose
There are still many environmental crises that affect the economy. Like it or not, these five environmental global risks impact you one way or another. I don’t want to preach, but what we can do now is to start small. Invest in purpose – be more mindful of how you affect the environment.
If you are a business owner who produces biohazard waste, be responsible for disposing of them properly. If you contribute to CO2 emissions, maybe it’s best to find an alternative today. We have to take care of the Earth because even if our generation may not experience the consequences of these environmental disasters, the future generation more likely will. And it will be more catastrophic.
Richard Cameron is the CEO of Protect Environmental Services.
Protect Environmental Services, Inc. (PESI) is your best-in-class “clutch” performer when you need a First Responder. PESI tackle & remediate the most dangerous chemical spills & removal of hazardous waste. In fact, our pursuit of safety & rapid response for environmental sustainability surpasses ALL other environmental service companies. PESI has been rapidly responding to emergency environmental calls in North Central Texas since 1996.
Richard is also a published author of the “Ebola Response Procedures.” Additionally, he is considered an expert witness to many litigation and mediation cases. He works with multiple law enforcement agencies in forensics to hunt down illegal dumping perpetrators.