Agriculture is a complex, sophisticated and indispensable component of modern Australian life. Climate change is heightening these characteristics. It is simultaneously increasing the agriculture sector’s vulnerability: underlining its reliance on nature and fossil fuels, exposing its weaknesses, and testing its ability to rapidly adapt to new circumstances
This chapter is about wellbeing in the Anthropocene. ‘The Anthropocene’ is the name given to the new chronological period the Earth is said to now be in as a result of human modifications, representing its exit from the Holocene (the past, relatively stable 10–12 millenia)
In Australia, nearly one third of our national population — approximately 7 million Australians — live in rural and remote areas. For all the complex reasons that health and place are associated, the health of this spatially, economically, socially and culturally distinct group is generally quantitatively and qualitatively different to — and often significantly poorer than — that of those living in major cities