This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The World Economic Forum, the group of global elites whom those on the political right love to hate, has just issued its report on the biggest threats in 2024 and beyond.
And at the top of its list of risks is not the climate, at least not immediately.
The WEF, based in Davos, Switzerland, says the biggest short-term risk stems from fake news.
"While climate-related risks remain a dominant theme, the threat from misinformation and disinformation is identified as the most severe short-term threat in the 2024 report," the group indicated.
"The cascading shocks that have beset the world in recent years are proving intractable. War and conflict, polarized politics, a continuing cost-of-living crisis, and the ever-increasing impacts of a changing climate are destabilizing the global order."
"The report reveals a world 'plagued by a duo of dangerous crises: climate and conflict.' These threats are set against a backdrop of rapidly accelerating technological change and economic uncertainty."
The globalists say "the growing concern about misinformation and disinformation is in large part driven by the potential for AI, in the hands of bad actors, to flood global information systems with false narratives."
The report states that over the next two years, "foreign and domestic actors alike will leverage misinformation and disinformation to widen societal and political divides."
It indicates the threat is enhanced by large elections with more than 3 billion people heading to the polls in 2024 and 2025 in the U.S., Britain, and India.
The report suggests the spread of mis- and disinformation could result in civil unrest, but could also drive government-driven censorship, domestic propaganda, and controls on the free flow of information.
Rounding out the top ten risks for the next two years are extreme weather events, societal polarization, cyber insecurity, interstate armed conflict, lack of economic opportunity, inflation, involuntary migration, economic downturn, and pollution.
The ten-year list of risks puts extreme weather events at No. 1, followed by critical change to Earth systems, biodiversity loss and economic collapse, natural resource shortages, misinformation and disinformation, adverse outcomes of AI technologies, involuntary migration, cyber insecurity, societal polarization, and pollution.
