Imposição desigual do risco. Pandemia Covid-19

Estamos no mesmo barco?

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to reflect on the health crisis resulting from the Covid-19 Pandemic and to debate the utilitarian view of ecological modernization, which insists on rational calculation to the detriment of Environmental Justice. In order to support the argument of the unequal imposition of environmental risk presented by Henri Acselrad and the defense of the need to create democratic forms of control (ACSELRAD, 2002; 2018) we bring to the analysis arguments that suggest the non-falsification of the hypothesis that Environmental risks are not distributed in a democratic manner in the territories, where informal practices, such as clientelism, operate, which help to impose waiting and silence alert launchers. We problematize the representation capacities of minority groups based on notes from the discussion on alienation and aggregation, representation and delegation (PITIKIN, 1967; YOUNG, 2006) and on practical authority and the different levels of participation in the Brazilian river basin committees presented by Abers and Keck (2017). Finally, we emphasize the importance of building possible paths for democratic control over risk-carrying practices, paths that go through the recognition of the non-democratic distribution of risk and the confrontation of the State's subservience to capital. To give materiality to the theoretical debate, we bring a brief descriptive exercise of the measures adopted in Campos dos Goytacazes, a municipality bordering the Campos Basin, which, as the analyzes suggest, despite the resources from royalties, does not have adequate infrastructure to face the demands of the pandemic. of Covid-19.