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Hi everyone. This is Ricardo Vargas, and this is the five-minute podcast. I want to share with you today my insights about the World Economic Forum Global Risk Report 2020 for the 19th edition of the report. And for me, I have known the report for many years since my time at the UN. And this is a very, very insightful report. And it's perfect that they release this report at this time of the year because this is a time that is very special for me. It's time I'm thinking about the year. I was thinking, okay, what would be the trends, and where should I put my mind on thinking about where I should be concerned? And this report raised some attention for me. The first one is about the environment. And if you go back one year ago, when I recorded a podcast, I said the same. But now it is different because now we are truly approaching a point of no return. It means the level of destruction will not be able to be recovered. And this is a big thing. If you take a look at the ten-year forecast about the trends in the top five, four of them, four out of five, number one, number two, number three, and number four, are related to the environment. So it's a massive challenge. But I'm not saying this is less relevant, but this is already on the top of our minds for many years despite several people thinking in a different way, thinking it's less relevant. But what is really concerning me on this is when I look at the two-year time frame, it means a short time on the top.
It's misinformation and disinformation, and I love what they said. Truth is under pressure. It means the concept of what is true and what is not true. It's not so evident today. Why? Because with the use of technology associated with polarization, you have such a fertile environment to create very convincing fake news in order to shift the concept of what is true and why this is so important for all of us. Because many of you may think, okay, I'm managing a project and why does this relate to me? Remember, your project is not an island. Your project relies on suppliers, clients, workers, and people who will do service and receive service from your project. And if this spread of misinformation starts to contaminate, okay, first in the political environment, but second in the business environment, then it will be in deep trouble because we will not know anymore what is true, what is fake, what is a problem? For example, maybe you will see a video that you are sure that a company did a criminal act on a project, but then this video may not be true. That person may not exist. And this is something that makes me really sad because I love AI. Many of you know that, and I think I could be one of the big steps for us to produce a better life. But the problem is that people don't get that. And still, many people think that AI is a tool for you to spread disharmony and to spread hate.
And this is on the top item. Another thing that was super interesting is that we went a couple of years ago, and everybody was concerned about the pandemic. And you know, these kinds of problems with, I would say, biological hazards, and you know, like Covid, and now it just disappears. It's so interesting to see how our memory is short-lived. Right. Because this was on the top of the agenda a couple of years ago. Just listen to my podcast from 2 to 3 years ago, and you will see that. And now they are not even among the top ten. So, just to give you an idea, if we look at the two-year report, the short term we see the top is misinformation and disinformation, followed by extreme weather events, and the third one that is very related to the first one, societal polarization. It means everything is becoming much more. People cannot reach an equilibrium. Everything is 8 or 80 everything. So we see. All the political debate is polarized. All the economic debate is polarized. People cannot walk through the center to find a consensus in a society that is struggling to move forward. The fourth one is cyber insecurity because our lives are becoming more and more dependent on it. And, you know, this concept of being safe in the cyber environment is becoming a true challenge for all of us. So it's a dramatic thing that we see here the concept of cyber insecurity. And the fifth one is armed conflict. And this is interesting because last week, when I spoke about the trends, it's so interesting because I talked about this volatility in this, and I mentioned the concept of the armed conflict, Russia and Ukraine, Hamas and Israel.
And this could spread out and could create a lot of instability for us. And what is my final say to all of you? It's think about how these things will impact your work and your projects, because if you think they will not impact, bear with me. You are wrong because you are part of an ecosystem. You have suppliers, you have clients, you have the whole ecosystem around your project. And if this is dominated by fake news and one of these big trends and big risks becomes a reality, there is no way it will impact your project. So think about that. Please download this report. It's more than 120 pages. I'm not telling you to read everything. I would love that this podcast would create a stimulus for all of you to do that, but you need to download it, and you need to take a look at the big things. And this is exactly why I'm recording this podcast because I'm reading to give me the insights I need to make my decisions about 2024, and I hope you can do the same. Remember, this is absolutely critical information for you and for your project. Trust me. Okay. And download it, read it, take a look and act on it. Okay, I hope you enjoyed this podcast, and see you next week with another five-minute podcast.
