Humans consume resources equivalent to more than half the production achieved by all the plants and other primary producers on Earth. Our ability to do so, and to distribute those resources across the globe on a scale unparalleled in non-human systems, stems in part from infrastructure networks that connect us to each other and to our environment. Engineered distribution networks, such as electric-power grids, oil pipelines, railroads, airports, trade routes and banking systems, and the communication networks that their coordination requires, provide the channels through which people, diseases, resources and ideas now move through the world. They determine who we meet, where we travel and how much we consume. Many of our most pressing global challenges stem from flows over these networks. Air, rail and road networks vastly increase the likelihood of a pandemic by allowing billions to be infected by a virus at an unprecedented speed. Shipping networks carry energy from a few oil-rich locations to distant consumers, fuelling potentially catastrophic climate change. Even less tangible networks have tremendous impact on humanity: most economists failed to predict the speed and extent of the recent financial crisis partly because they didn't understand the nature of the networks through which it spread.
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