Words and language for an emergency

The tsunami, emergencies and the long run

Paul‑Henri Bourrelier

A distinction is made between an “immediate” and an “abeyant” emergency, the one during and the other after a catastrophe. Past experiences force us to envision preventive measures both in the strict sense of the word and in the sense of alerts. This new approach relies on local networks and persistent efforts in training and education.

The greenhouse effect: Is it urgent to wait?

Jean‑Louis Zentelin

The greenhouse effect and the depletion of oil reserves are two urgent matters, the one imminent, the other latent. The handling of these two related issues necessitate reconciling the advocates of precaution and the supporters of progress, technology and ethics. This is not at all easy, even less so since the possible delay in the climatic catastrophe tends to hide the issues.

Globalization and security

Raphaël Baumler

In the context of globalization, transportation provides a telling example of the current state of security in industry. Transportation in general and by ship in particular is a laboratory for working out ideas about the safety of industrial activities and populations in the future. It can serve as a pilot industry for making security a public good and an inalienable right.

Emergencies at Charles de Gaulle Airport

Philippe Bargain

From the Napoleonic battlefields to the runways of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy near Paris and on to southeastern Asia… an itinerary that lets us discover the various facets of emergency medicine.

Language about and during emergencies

Marie Berchoud

Are responses to an emergency merely arrangements to be made and actions to be undertaken? This would lead us to overlook how important language is. Talking, making people talk or do, listening, making oneself understood — all this as fast, precisely and clearly as possible — are exigencies in an emergency situation. Are we prepared to handle the language aspects of our responses to a catastrophe?

Emergencies and feedback from experience: Strategic input

Danièle Trauman

Why feedback from experience? To capitalize knowledge, reinforce learning and learn to foresee difficulties; and to know how to sort. How to achieve this? Thanks to a strategic, forward-looking analysis, to an inventory of resource persons and facilities, and to the organization of transports and means of mobilization… all these are ways to restore the conditions for law and order in the shortest time possible.

Emergencies and the media: Managing the media during a crisis

Philippe Madelin

One field where the concept of an emergency is fully valid is the news, in whatever form. Newspapers, radio and television all have to regularly report on catastrophes regardless of inconveniences and restrictions. The media cannot be avoided since they serve, during an emergency, as relay stations between public institutions and the population.

Modelizing the follow-up on water resource management: The Phylou Project

Annabelle Boutet, Olivier Barreteau, Flavie Cernesson and Patrice Garin

This sociological study was conducted as part of a project for working out a multi‑agent system so as to simulate the transfers of used phytosanitary products in viticulture and to help develop a shared model of their impact on water resources. Researchers at CEMAGREF implemented participatory procedures for involving actors in the water supply in this study. Using the “hybrid forums model", this analysis sheds light on this approach’s capacity for making sociotechnical phenomena “scientific” and on its utility.

Emergencies reflected from philosophy

Kenneth Helt

According to a widespread opinion, philosophy is useless when confronted with action, especially during an emergency. This prejudice does not stand the test. Philosophy refuses the idea of an emergency not to deny it but to move beyond it so as to enable people to build a future and rise out of barbarity.