Pandemics, Existential and non-Existential Risks to Humanity

Autor: Luiz Marques
Jazyk: English<br />Spanish; Castilian<br />Portuguese
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Ambiente & Sociedade, Vol 23 (2020)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1414-753X
1809-4422
DOI: 10.1590/1809-4422asoc20200126vu2020l3id
Popis: Abstract The pandemic caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus has initiated an era of structural economic stagnation. With it, we have crossed a threshold in which the planet’s so-called “ecosystemic services” have started becoming “ecosystemic disservices”. Covid-19 is one of those disservices. In itself, it certainly does not constitute an existential risk to humanity. But what will be discussed here is the existence of a clear dividing line between existential and non-existential risks. Frequently, an existential risk results from a set of crises that, separately, do not existentially threaten humanity. Nevertheless, combined and acting in synergy, those crises have the potential to do so. The current pandemic points at the chance for a great civilizational shift, probably the last chance before environmental imbalances escape societies’ control.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals