Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 1. contd.
Global Change can be seen as any change of the Earth system in the global
scale on the continents, the oceans, the atmosphere, fauna and fl ora, the social
and economic system, culture and civilization. It includes climate and the
atmospheric circulation, ocean circulation, the carbon and nitrogen cycle, the
water cycle (including glaciers and permafrost, sea ice and the sea level rise),
resource use, energy, economy, transport, communication, technology, land use
and—cover, urbanization, nutrition, demographic change and other cultural
and environmental changes as biodiversity, pollution, health and more. In a
more dense defi nition Global Change can be seen as a combination of Climate
Change and Globalization.
Impact: We defi ne impact as the collision of climate change and/or globalization
to the environment, societies, cultures and/or economies of mountains.
Adaptation: In our topic adaptation to Global Change is meant as any measure
to minimize effects of Climate Change and Globalization.
References
Blyth, S., B. Groombridge, I. Lysenko, L. Miles and A. Newton. 2002. Mountain Watch.
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK.
Price, M.F., AlC. Bryers, D.A. Friend, T. Kohler and L.W. Price (eds.). 2014. Mountain
Geography. Physical and Human Dimensions. University of California Press. Berkeley,
Los Angeles, London.
3. Cultural services—recreation, tourism, aesthetic value, cultural and
spiritual heritage.
4. Supporting services—ecosystem functions, including energy and
material fl ow, such as primary production, water and nutrient cycling,
soil accumulation and provision of habitats.
Various anthropogenic activities such as deforestation, expansion
of urban areas and infrastructure, intensifi ed agriculture and climate
change have changed the fragile and vulnerable mountain ecosystems. It
is not just the ecology of mountains which is changing, but the economic
relations of mountain communities have also undergone transformations.
Not too long ago, economies of most mountain communities depended
on use of resources at different altitudinal zones. However construction
of new roads or in some cases (e.g., Nepal) availability of helicopters has
connected remote isolated rural communities to the rest of the world. With
easy accessibility tourism has increased quite a bit—to explore beautiful
scenery, experience different cultures and for pilgrimage. Pilgrimage adds
quite a bit of traffi c in some areas, for example—9.3 million pilgrims arrive
each year at Hardwar-Rishikesh, the entry point for pilgrimage in Garhwal
(Martin Price, Mountains: globally important ecosystems). Infl ux of pilgrims
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