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vulnerability — English
Something tangible or intangible that is fragile and could easily be damaged. In geography the term is used in many different contexts. A political grouping or an agreement could be vulnerable (eg Palestine and the EU); the supply line of emergency food might be vulnerable (eg Southern Sudan and Somalia); a starving population might be vulnerable (eg Darfur and Somalia); the stalactites in any limestone cave are extremely vulnerable because of tourists exhaling CO2 and radiating heat; an entire ecosystem might be vulnerable (eg the entire Niger Delta which is threatened by oil exploration); a city or country located in the floodplain of a large river might be vulnerable (eg New Orleans and just about the entire Bangladesh); an entire city built across a faultline is vulnerable (eg San Francisco and Los Angeles); and every metre of land on the African continent is vulnerable to erosion and irreversible degradation. In fact, the entire Earth and everything on it are vulnerable. We tend to regard the natural as well as human-made environments as strong and resilient, but when we realise how vulnerable they actually are, we might view and treat them with more respect and care.
