World faced with growing instability, violence: think-tank

UNITED NATIONS  - Rising food and energy prices, water scarcity, climate change and increasing migrations could fuel growing instability and violence around the world over the next decade, a report by a global think-tank said Tuesday.

But despite its grim forecast, the 2008 State of the Future report by the Millennium Project - a global research undertaking - insists that “advances in science, technology, education, economics and management seem capable of making the world work far better than it does today.”

It highlighted 15 global challenges, ranging from water and energy to organised crime and global ethics, that require priority attention.

It noted that half of the world was vulnerable to social instability and violence due to food and energy prices, failing states, water scarcity, climate change, dwindling food and energy supply per person, desertification and increasing migrations.