The six challenges facing Portugal 50 years after the 25th of April

[1] Doctor specializing in Public Health.

[2] Calculations proven by observations obtained from space telescopes, namely Hubble and James Webb.

[3] The first signs of life refer to very simple unicellular organisms that, according to Charles Darwin (1809–1882), had the capacity to evolve.

[4] There are anthropologists and historians who admit the appearance of Homo sapiens longer ago: between 200 thousand and 300 thousand years (or more).

[5] In Lisbon, on Rua Sampaio Bruno, at the junction with Rua Coelho da Rocha, the place where the sea existed 20 million years ago is marked. There, Bryozoa (invertebrates measuring less than a millimeter) abounded and gathered together in thousands, forming colonies. The respective fossils are visible in this geomonument.

[6] The main industrial units were owned by three families: Mello, Espírito Santo and Champalimaud. ⁷ The National Environmental Commission had been created by Ordinance 316/71 of June 19, 1971, as a Permanent Commission of the National Board of Scientific and Technological Research (JNICT).

[7] Data cited in the publication Subsidies for the Laying of the Bases of the National Health Service from the State Department of Health, in November 1974.

[8] In 1970, the illiteracy rate was 34%.

[9] In February 2024, Brussels (EU) announced that Portugal will respond for non-compliance with Environmental obligations before the Court of Justice.

[10] The problem of greenhouse gas production is not limited locally (to the place of emission), as it is eminently global.

[11] Transcription of Point 5, paragraph p) of Decree-Law no. 203/74 of May 15, 1974.

[12] The previous year, in 1973, World Environment Day had been created for the first time, to be celebrated at an international level.

[13] Manuel Rocha was a prestigious engineer who had directed the National Civil Engineering Laboratory between 1954-1974.

[14] Gonçalo Ribeiro Teles, landscape architect from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (1952), became famous as an environmentalist, ecologist and politician. He was Minister of State and Quality of Life in the VII Constitutional Government (1981–1883). He is responsible for the creation of protected areas of the National Agricultural Reserve and the National Ecological Reserve, among other pioneering political measures aimed at preventing real estate construction.

[15] Climate Action, from 2019 onwards, will be included in the official name of the Ministry: Ministry of Environment and Climate Action.

[16] The importance assumed by the associative movement, which emerged at the time, which quickly acquired notable visibility, namely QUERCUS and GEOTA, in addition to the oldest League for the Protection of Nature (LPN), which had been founded in 1948, is indisputable.

[17] The English acronym ESG translates this challenge: environmental, social and governance.

[18] The REA for 2022 was published in June 2023, and is accessible on the APA website. ²⁰ IPMA is, therefore, heir to the National Meteorological Service, founded in 1946.

[19] The UV Index measures the intensity of ultraviolet radiation, emitted by the Sun, at the level of the Earth’s surface.

[20] It resulted from the merger of the National Forest Authority with the Institute for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity and the Permanent Forest Fund.

[21] Threatened animal species are classified into 3 classes: critically endangered; in danger of extinction; vulnerable species.

[22] They can be consulted at site ICNF official.

[23] It succeeds the National Civil Protection Authority, National Civil Protection Service and National Fire Service.

[24] Sanitary agents were assistants specially prepared for field work. You. Training courses at INSA lasted 4 months and, subsequently, for improvement, between 2 and 4 weeks.

[25] The Vector Surveillance Network (known as REVIVE) has been developed together with the DGS since 2009.

[26] Until 2008, the year of her retirement, Olga Mayan was a researcher at INSA’s Porto Delegation, where she led the Center for Environmental and Occupational Health.

[27] The expression SMOG results from the combination of smoke (smoking) and fog (fog).

[28] The gases that make up atmospheric air are, in proportional terms, approximately: 78% nitrogen; 21% oxygen; 0.9% argon; 0.4% water vapor (variable depending on conditions

[29] Portugal’s Mediterranean climate is considered one of the mildest in Europe.

[30] The Azores anticyclone also exerts influence on Spain, Western Europe, North Africa and the Americas.

[31] SO2 is also called sulfur dioxide, being a very toxic gas and, when inhaled, highly irritating to the respiratory tract.

[32] Aerosols are smaller in size than drops.

[33] Troposphere is the name given to the lower layer of the atmosphere that has a height from the ground of 9 kilometers at the poles and 17 kilometers at the Equator. Tropospheric ozone is usually called “bad” ozone (pollutant) as opposed to “good” stratospheric ozone (upper layer of the atmosphere). The first (tropospheric) results from a photochemical reaction caused by solar radiation with the intervention of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. The second (stratospheric ozone), by filtering ultraviolet solar radiation, protects the planet and is therefore commonly called beneficial or “good ozone”.

[34] The proof of the cause-effect relationship between tobacco smoking and the shortening of life is due to Richard Doll.

[35] The work of Richard Doll and collaborators demonstrates that the incidence of lung cancer is higher for the non-smoking spouse when one of the couple smokes, compared to when neither spouse smokes.

[36] Fine particles are mainly emitted by the industrial and transport sectors, as well as by fires.

[37] Within the scope of the Air Quality Action Plan.

[38] For example, chest pain caused by deep inspiration is characteristic of the clinical picture caused by tropospheric ozone poisoning.

[39] Sequencing the genome of Legionella pneumophilaboth obtained from lung secretions and aerosols emitted by cooling towers, confirmed that they were from the same strain: L. pneumophila Fraseri serogroup 1.