The increasing frequency of extreme events, exogenous and endogenous, poses challenges for our societies. The current pandemic is a case in point; but "once-in-a-century" weather events are also becoming more common, leading to erosion, wildfire and even volcanic events that change ecosystems and disturbance regimes, threaten the sustainability of our life-support systems, and challenge the robustness and resilience of societies. Dealing with extremes will require new approaches and large-scale collective action. Preemptive measures can increase general resilience, a first line of protection, while more specific reactive responses are developed. Preemptive measures also can minimize the negative effects of events that cannot be avoided. In this paper, we first explore approaches to prevention, mitigation and adaptation, drawing inspiration from how evolutionary challenges have made biological systems robust and resilient, and from the general theory of complex adaptive systems. We argue further that proactive steps that go beyond will be necessary to reduce unacceptable consequences.

外源性和内源性极端事件日益频繁，对我们的社会构成挑战。当前的大流行就是一个很好的例子。但“百年一遇”的天气事件也变得越来越普遍，导致侵蚀、野火甚至火山事件改变生态系统和扰动机制，威胁我们生命支持系统的可持续性，并挑战稳健性和复原力的社会。应对极端情况需要新的方法和大规模的集体行动。先发制人的措施可以提高总体弹性，这是第一道保护线，同时开发出更具体的反应性反应。先发制人的措施还可以最大限度地减少无法避免的事件的负面影响。在本文中，我们首先探讨了预防、缓解和适应的方法，从进化挑战如何使生物系统变得强大和有弹性，以及从复杂适应系统的一般理论中汲取灵感。我们进一步认为，为了减少不可接受的后果，必须采取超越的积极措施。