We live in epoch-making times. Literally. The changes we humans have made in recent decades have altered our world beyond anything it has experienced in its 4.5 billion-year history – we have become a force on a par with earth-shattering asteroids and planet-cloaking volcanoes. As a result, our planet is said to be crossing a geological boundary – from the Holocene into the Anthropocene, or Age of Man. Quitting her job at science journal ‘Nature’, Gaia Vince decided to travel the world at the start of this new age, to explore what all these changes really mean for the people living on the frontline of the planet we’ve made. She found ordinary people solving severe crises in ingenious, effective ways.