Paper short abstract:

Lamas de Olo is small mountain village located in the midst of a natural park in the northeast of Portugal. Subsistence farming and small scale cattle herding are the main livelihoods of its inhabitants however Lamas de Olo has one of the highest levels of groud level ozone in Europe.

Paper long abstract:

Lamas de Olo is small mountain village located in the midst of a natural park in the northeast of Portugal. Subsistence farming and small scale cattle herding are the main livelihoods of its inhabitants. Large industries or other sources of pollution are hundreds of kilometers away however Lamas de Olo has one of the highest levels of groud level ozone in Europe. Dwellers are not well informed of this fact nevertheless they are aware of it, mostly through television news and do establish a connection between it and some health problems (chiefly respiratory) and a widespread uncommon fatigue felt mainly during hot summer days. "It's an invisible enemy, an invisible evil", say some of them.

Anthropology is particular well situated to study this kind of elusive climate change issues and this paper explores how people perceive and cope with climate change/overheating/global pollution and its less obvious manifestations.