2021, like any other year in the world, has its own risks and challenges that have to be addressed. Identifying and tackling the key risks of 2021 will be a challenge, because there are quite a few. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, and other factors outside of our control, we have quite a few unique challenges to deal with right now.
Let’s take a quick look at what these challenges are, and how they will represent massive risks to stability and society all across the world.
#1 – COVID-19
The coronavirus pandemic is the biggest threat to 2021. It has been going on since 2019, and has been a massively detrimental disease in so many different ways. Countless lives have been lost, people have suffered, and there has been a massive impact on the global economy, trade, development, and life in general.
#2 – Unemployment
Unemployment has been a considerable challenge thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, because it has meant that there are many people who cannot contribute meaningfully to the economy, and also are relying on government support just to stay alive. Unemployment has been a crisis for a long time now, but the pandemic has pushed it to a breaking point.
#3 – Disease Prevention
Obviously, disease prevention has been a big part of 2021. The entire world has pretty much been working in tandem to create vaccinations to protect against COVID-19, to segment off parts of the world that are dangerous to visit due to outbreaks, and there has been a genuine sense of cooperation in regards to disease prevention.
#4 – Environmental Concerns
The amount of single use plastic has shot up recently, which is contributing to environmental damages. Owing to the fact that there are a bigger number of supplies being wheeled out in support of people everywhere, the amount of plastic that is being thrown away and not safely disposed or recycled is growing.
#5 – Political Instability
Politics has always been at the forefront of the world, and it has dictated a lot of the way we have cooperated and fought amongst ourselves. America, one of the world’s biggest superpowers, is constantly in a state of turmoil at the moment following the election of Joe Biden. His defeat of Donald Trump has sparked mass controversy, and ultimately thrown into doubt America’s alliances with some of the world’s major superpowers, as many world leaders and ordinary citizens are not satisfied with Biden in charge.
#6 – Racial Tensions
Racial tension all across the world continues to spill in from 2020, with many people simply now campaigning night and day to bring about a new period of racial equality. The USA has been at the forefront of this for some time, when innocent black people were murdered by police officers, triggering a worldwide protest at the inequality that seems to be so systemic in society.
#7 – Environmental Concerns
The environment has been taking a beating through the coronavirus, as while the air quality in many parts of the world has cleared up, the amount of waste being produced and not safely disposed of has gone up to match. We are starting to see large quantities of rubbish being deposited in places where it shouldn’t be, leading to overflow, the destruction of natural environments, and in some cases, seeing the waste spill out into populated areas and our oceans.
#8 – Mental Health
The topic of mental health is one that has been heavily contested over the last 10 years also, but 2021 is definitely the year for radical change. One of the big risks at the moment is a lack of services and support for mental health, which has been seriously exacerbated and required due to the damaging mental consequences of the pandemic.
#9 – Disillusionment of Youth
Many young people, who are vital for securing a positive future, are failing to see the point in connecting with society in a meaningful way. There are less people who are willing to commit to high-level corporate positions, renovate industries, and rejuvenate many parts of the world. Instead, young people are more concerned with tackling social and political issues, and this has led to a distinct disillusionment in the corporate system at large.
#10 – Returning to Normality
Perhaps the biggest risk of 2021 is the idea that we will not return to normality when the coronavirus pandemic stops. It is going to be interesting to see if humanity can ever return to when it was before, or whether the world has been, as many people have speculated, irrevocably changed. Some people believe that we will never return to the world we knew before, and that everything will be different, whereas others don’t see a way out of the pandemic. Only time will tell, but returning to normality will perhaps be the biggest challenge of our time.
