Environmental risk and disaster risk: what is the difference?

Abstract

Our starting point for this discussion
is the assumption that the concepts of
‘environmental risk’ and ‘disaster risk’
originated separately; the first derivative of
the concerns in Europe by environmental
pollution and high-risk activities; and
second, originated in Latin America for
the impact of ‘natural’ disasters; moreover,
these concepts were integrated or spliced
in the early twenty-first century to reach
no discrepancies in their definition. This
article takes a brief account of the origin
and development of these two concepts
internationally; besides presenting, relate and compare the concepts used in Guatemala.