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4 - Assessing Vulnerability and Risk in the Anthropocene Epoch

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2021

Andy Haines  and
Howard Frumkin
Andy Haines
Affiliation:
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Howard Frumkin
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Summary

Throughout human history, communities and individuals have adapted more or less successfully to changes in their local environments. The Anthropocene Epoch poses adaptation challenges that are new and different, both quantitatively and qualitatively, from those experienced during human history, because of both the scale and pace of the changes and the sheer numbers of humans who will need to adapt. At the same time, humanity has access – albeit inequitably – to the fruits of scientific and technological progress unavailable to previous generations, which facilitate at least some successful adaptation.

Type
Chapter
Information
Planetary Health
Safeguarding Human Health and the Environment in the Anthropocene
 , pp. 125 - 147
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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