We know that last year would go down in history as a bad year for the world economy. In the first half of the year, volatile commodity prices, especially for food and oil, hit the world's poorest people hard. In the second half was the global financial catastrophe.

Yet, could the crises of food, fuel and finance that we experienced last year simply be three canaries in the coal mine? What if these are just the early warning signals that our current economic system is not sustainable at a much deeper level?

The World Economic Forum convened over 700 international experts in Dubai, last November to discuss the world agenda for this year. Among them were over 120 leading experts in environment, sustainability and human security. Their conclusions were startling.