Lessons from the past, policies for the future: resilience and sustainability in past crises

John Haldon (), Merle Eisenberg, Lee Mordechai, Adam Izdebski and Sam White
Additional contact information
John Haldon: Princeton University
Merle Eisenberg: National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center
Lee Mordechai: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Adam Izdebski: Max-Planck-Inst. for the Science of Human History, PI
Sam White: Ohio State University

Environment Systems and Decisions, 2020, vol. 40, issue 2, 287-297

Abstract: Abstract This article surveys some examples of the ways past societies have responded to environmental stressors such as famine, war, and pandemic. We show that people in the past did think about system recovery, but only on a sectoral scale. They did perceive challenges and respond appropriately, but within cultural constraints and resource limitations. Risk mitigation was generally limited in scope, localized, and again determined by cultural logic that may not necessarily have been aware of more than symptoms, rather than actual causes. We also show that risk-managing and risk-mitigating arrangements often favored the vested interests of elites rather than the population more widely, an issue policy makers today still face.

Keywords: Plague; Pandemic; Environmental stress; Existential risk; Risk mitigation; Resilience; Government responses; Complex historical societies; Inequality; System recovery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10669-020-09778-9

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