Are these the greatest global threats we face in the 21st century?

Many commentators and organisations publish lists of what they see as the ‘greatest global threats’ to humanity and/or the world in the 21st century. Some have serious work behind them, some are more a ‘top ten’ kind of list, but they’re all from reputable sources.

I thought it would be interesting to research a number of these thought pieces, from multiple sources including the UN, WEF, various governments, NGOs, think tanks, commentators, etc. The resulting table would show how the great and the good, or at least the influential, see our world and the problems within it. Or at least how those that talk about it see the problems. I’m pretty sure that most of the people actually running the world stop being concerned after the global economy stays on the rails. Here’s the list – I’ve limited it to the top 40 identifiable issues.

Many are inter-related of course, and some are sub-issues of others that were worth calling out as they got enough mentions and description and were therefore worth giving their own ratings. All the research comes from the past seven years of published articles/books (so post-2009 crisis) and from more than 30 different sources. The weightings are keyed off the number one issue – climate change – which I’ve given an arbitrary factor of 10.

Take a minute to scan down the list and say what you agree with, disagree with, what’s missing from (apparently everybody’s) thinking, or what’s plain outrageous. I’ll start with a simple comment – generally the people with the time and outlets to publish this sort of thing are from Western, developed economies. It would be instructive to gain a similar view from the developing world and see what that list would look like. Not necessarily the same I would bet.