Jauniaux, Eric; Wylie, Blair J; Verheijen, Evelyn; Conry, Jeanne; Papageorghiou, Aris; (2024) Women's health in the anthropocene. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology , 131 (5) pp. 531-532. 10.1111/1471-0528.17679.

Text Jauniaux_Jauniaux Editorial for BJOG Accepted version.pdf Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 6 March 2025. Download (328kB)

Abstract

The destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD serves as a well-documented example of the first humanitarian disaster linked to an environmental event. Most of the buildings of the two cities and many of its inhabitants were buried under the volcanic ashes within 48 hours and the rest by further eruptions. Both cities remained hidden until their accidental rediscovery in the 18th century. While dramatic and devastating, events like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis are naturally occurring and there is no evidence that during the last two millennium even the largest volcanic eruptions affected global climate.1 In contrast, the Anthropocene era describes the period when human activities have been the dominant influence on global climate and ecosystems (www.nationalgeographic.org). Climate change sceptics point to the fact that urbanisation, industrialisation and associated environmental destruction are not new: for example, the construction of Ancient Rome caused widespread deforestation and soil erosion around the Mediterranean which may have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire (www.smithsonianmag.com). However, like volcanic eruptions or other natural disasters, these events tended to be local and temporary.

Download activity - last month

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Archive Staff Only

View Item