study day : Man faced with natural risks in antiquity: fatalism, adaptation, resilience
MSH Bordeaux, December 16, 2022

“Environmental Risks and Societies: From hunter-gatherers to industrial civilization!
» Eric Fouache, UFR professor of Geography and Planning, Sorbonne University UR Médiations de SU, Senior Honorary Member of the University Institute of France, eric.fouache[at]sorbonne-universite.fr

Keywords: Environmental risks, societies, Anthropocene, geo-archaeology

Environmental risks can be divided into two categories, natural risks and risks induced by the interaction between human action and environmental dynamics. Natural hazards, which only become risks to the extent that their consequences affect human societies, are immutable and we can list them: meteorite impacts, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, mass movements , extreme climatic events (hurricane, storm, drought, fires, etc.), epidemics. Depending on the areas of civilization and the periods, these risks were more or less perceived, more or less taken into account. The very slow progression of human groups on the surface of the planet, which is estimated at 5 km per generation for the Neolithic for example, facilitated the acquisition of the pragmatic knowledge necessary for survival, but it was not until contemporary era to have real concepts to explain these phenomena. Our civilization is the first to have the capacity to reconstruct the hazards of the past, to determine risk zones and to be able to at least partially model future developments. Concerning the risks induced by the interactions between human action and environmental dynamics, these have continued to develop as population growth and the conquest of the ecumene. Hunter-gatherers and Neolithic peasants responded to the risk of scarcity or famine in different ways, while cohabitation between man and domesticated animals, the emergence of cities and trade increased the appearance of new diseases. and the risks of epidemics. Over the 300,000 years that have passed since the appearance of Homo Sapiens, human societies have proven to be resilient in the long term and on a planetary scale, both in the face of cycles of climatic fluctuations and variations in sea level, between glacial and interglacial periods, as well as disasters caused by human action. But paradoxically the more developed societies are, the more complex their functioning and the higher the cost of their reconstruction or reorganization. The current short-term risk of the necessary responses to global change is perhaps more financial, economic and societal than truly environmental! But we are the first civilization to be able to lead this debate and this awareness. On a planet where no space can any longer be considered natural, we are forced to manage hybrid spaces and to find compromises between maintaining biodiversity and wildlife, societal balance which involves satisfying the needs of populations. More than ever, the quality of political and economic governance must be present, going hand in hand with education of the populations. If this circle is not virtuous it is difficult to establish trust between society, experts and leaders and to build consensus.