At a conference on global risks like cyberterrorism, climate change, nuclear weapons and the world’s lagging energy supply, participants were not particularly optimistic.

They presented data showing that the boom in biofuels was depleting Southeast Asian rain forests, that “bot herders” — computer hackers for hire — were hijacking millions of computers, and that the lack of progress over handling nuclear waste was both hampering the revival of nuclear energy and adding to terrorism risks.