Interdisciplinary Approaches of OECD to Risk Governance: Overview of the OECD International Futures Project on Emerging Systemic Risks

摘要

New and terrifying events are happening as we take our first steps into the 21st century. The world's population has always been faced with "risk" - but the difference today is that risks can now reach magnitudes of harm that hadn't been imagined in modern times. They have the potential for inflicting devastating damage on the vital systems and infrastructures on which our society depends. The menace to all that people value - the environment, property, health, life itself- has never been greater. The alarming headlines are now familiar - hugely damaging windstorms and flooding in Europe; ice storms in Canada; the appearance of AIDS, new variant CJD, SARS; terrorist attacks such as those of September 11th in the United States and the Sarin gas attack in Japan. These and other harmful events may have put policy makers and the public "on the alert", but that is not the same thing as being equipped to prevent those risks or mitigate the damage they cause. There is worrying evidence that countries are simply not adequately prepared.