ABSTRACT
The impacts of global change on environment and society are determined as much, if not more, by the characteristics of the ecosystems and people affected as by the magnitude of the change itself. Droughts of equal physical severity may have much less severe impacts on large, commercial, irrigated farms that can rely on insurance, good soils, and subsidized prices than on smaller, rain-fed, subsistence farms that lack institutional support. Irrigation, crop diversity, and flexible land-use and management strategies may buffer agricultural systems against climate variability. On the other hand, the systems may be more sensitive to change if economics, land tenure, and resource availability restrict options for land use, irrigation, and crop choice. Deforestation will have more severe effects in regions where slopes are steep, soils are fragile, or species are already being overhunted. Certain species, ecosystems, and cultures are disproportionately affected by desertification. Future generations, as well as the poor, sick, and powerless, are particularly sensitive to the widespread build-up of toxic substances in the environment.
