“Acceptance Speech” Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2021 in Climate Change

Acceptance speech by Ian Burton, winner of the 2021 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change, who was honored alongside Neil Adger and Karen O’Brien for their contributions to understanding the human and social dimensions of climate change. His research has been instrumental in establishing adaptation to the unavoidable impacts of global warming as a necessary complement to emissions reduction, promoting strategies to reduce people’s exposure and vulnerability to climate risks.

Burton reviews how adaptation evolved from a secondary concern in climate research into a scientific and political priority. He reflects on the changing relationship between humanity and nature, from the belief that nature could be controlled to the recognition that people must work in harmony with it. In the Anthropocene, he warns that humanity must learn to adapt to the environment it has transform

Acceptance speech by Ian Burton, winner of the 2021 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change, who was honored alongside Neil Adger and Karen O’Brien for their contributions to understanding the human and social dimensions of climate change. His research has been instrumental in establishing adaptation to the unavoidable impacts of global warming as a necessary complement to emissions reduction, promoting strategies to reduce people’s exposure and vulnerability to climate risks.

Burton reviews how adaptation evolved from a secondary concern in climate research into a scientific and political priority. He reflects on the changing relationship between humanity and nature, from the belief that nature could be controlled to the recognition that people must work in harmony with it. In the Anthropocene, he warns that humanity must learn to adapt to the environment it has transformed through profound changes that go beyond local and incremental responses, and highlights the role of younger generations in meeting this challenge.