I was reading about the Climate Emergency, and was thinking I have no real idea what an emergency is. Sure, I’ve heard the word emergency used in various contexts, but I’ve never heard it actually defined.

An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation, although in some situations, mitigation may not be possible and agencies may only be able to offer palliative care for the aftermath.

While some emergencies are self-evident (such as a natural disaster that threatens many lives), many smaller incidents require that an observer (or affected party) decide whether it qualifies as an emergency. The precise definition of an emergency, the agencies involved and the procedures used, vary by jurisdiction, and this is usually set by the government, whose agencies (emergency services) are responsible for emergency planning and management.

In other words, an emergency is a politically-defined situation. Emergencies aren’t self-evident, they are defined substantially in the context of the problem, seen through a lens of personal and community values.

A related term would be crisis, which by definition are negative situations that require action to avoid things getting worse. I feel like I have a better idea of what a crisis is, but a definition is worthwhile to review.

A crisis (plural: “crises”; adjectival form: “critical”) is any event or period that will lead, or may lead, to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when they occur abruptly, with little or no warning. More loosely, a crisis is a testing time or an emergency.