The anthropic risks, climate change and coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19)

• Autor(a) principal: Gonçalves, Carmen
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Bertolami, Orfeu
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.21814/anthropocenica.3652
• topic: Artigos

Risks have always been present throughout human history, however, today are qualitatively different, as many of them are anthropic (human-made). The fact that people are exposed to dangers for which they have no decision-making capacity depended on knowledge they often do not have in order to decide on possible acceptable risks. The pandemic situation we face now brings light on human-made risks; came and lifted the veil, if there were any doubts, about the impact on the quality of life on the Planet, as consequence of human decisions and behaviour. Two types of human-made risks will be addressed: climate change and the pandemic caused by the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2); reflecting on the exposure of structural vulnerabilities, these risks bring forth the importance of social capital and social networks in reducing vulnerabilities, the investment in science and its dissemination, and prevention, as preparedness for future risks, promoting resilience. Thus, governance relationships between States, economic models and resilient communities will also be addressed.