Land, Life, and Environmental Change in Mountains

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges facing mountain scholars is to separate environmental change caused by human activities from change that would have occurred without human interference. Linking cause and effect is especially difficult in mountain regions where physical processes can operate at ferocious rates and ecosystems are sensitive to rapid degradation by climate change and resource development. In addition, highland inhabitants are more vulnerable to natural hazards and political-economic marginalization than populations elsewhere. This address focuses on the Nanga Parbat massif in the Himalaya Range of Pakistan, Garhwal Himalaya of northwest India, and Manaslu-Ganesh Himals of central Nepal. I have highlighted three special insights that geographers offer to increase understanding of human impacts on the stability of mountain landscapes. First, the mixed methods and theories we employ—quantitative and qualitative, postpositivist science and social theory, muddy-boots fieldwork linked with GIScience—together position geographers to resolve the debate over human-triggered changes in the physical landscape in mountains and explain the frequent disconnect between mountain science, policymaking, and resource management. Second, academic scholars and policymakers have come to realize that most problems require training, experience, and expertise in understanding physical and human systems. Third, modern techniques of measuring rates of geomorphic change help place the human factor in perspective and explain spatial variability of natural hazards. Forecasting environmental change remains elusive in “the perfect landscape” of mountains.

Uno de los mayores retos al que se enfrentan los expertos en montañas es separar los cambios ambientales causados por las actividades humanas de los cambios que hubiesen ocurrido sin la interferencia del hombre. La relación entre causa y efecto es especialmente difícil en las regiones montañosas, en donde los procesos físicos pueden desencadenarse a una tasa feroz, y los ecosistemas son sensibles a la degradación rápida provocada por los cambios climáticos y el desarrollo de recursos. Además, los habitantes de las tierras altas son más vulnerables a los peligros naturales y a la marginalización político-económica que los habitantes de otros lugares. Este artículo se concentra en el macizo Nanga Parbat de la Cordillera de los Himalaya de Pakistán, el Garhwal Himalaya del noroeste de India y las montañas nevadas de Manaslu-Ganesh del centro de Nepal. He recalcado tres perspectivas especiales que los geógrafos ofrecen para aumentar la comprensión de los impactos humanos en la estabilidad de los paisajes montañeses. Primera, los métodos y teorías que empleamos—cuantitativas y cualitativas, ciencia postpositivista y teoría social, trabajo de campo ligado a la ciencia de información geográfica (GIScience)—en conjunto, colocan a los geógrafos en posición para resolver el debate sobre los cambios en el paisaje físico de las montañas provocado por el hombre y explicar la frecuente desconexión entre la ciencia de las montañas, el establecimiento de políticas y la administración de recursos. Segunda, los expertos académicos y los diseñadores de políticas se han dado cuenta de que la mayoría de los problemas requieren capacitación, experiencia y conocimientos para entender los sistemas físicos y humanos. Tercera, las técnicas modernas para medir las tasas de cambio geomórfico ayudan a poner en perspectiva el factor humano y explicar la variabilidad espacial de los peligros naturales. El pronóstico del cambio ambiental sigue siendo inaprensible en “el perfecto paisaje” de las montañas.

Key words:

• environmental change
• Himalaya
• Karakoram
• mountains

关键词:

• 环境变化
• 喜玛拉雅
• 咔拉在谮
• 山

Palabras claves:

• cambio ambiental
• Himalaya
• Karakoram
• montañas

Acknowledgments

I am grateful for the direct and indirect guidance of many in developing the concepts in this address. I appreciate the quality undergraduate education in geography that I received at UCLA (1970–1974), inspiring lectures, challenging projects, and stimulating field trips that taught me fundamental concepts, writing skills, and some measure of critical thinking. I am deeply indebted to my geography professors at Oregon State University (1974–1980), especially Dr. Charles L. Rosenfeld, who equipped me with a bag of tools, love of fieldwork, and desire to apply concepts and techniques to solve practical problems in mountains. I have been fortunate to collaborate with many skilled, efficient, energetic, and earnest faculty colleagues over the years. I am especially grateful to Maynard M. Miller of the Foundation for Glacier and Environmental Research for the initial opportunity to pursue field-based research in the Himalaya. Elizabeth Catlos (Oklahoma State University) has been particularly generous in collaborating and sharing ideas about the geodynamics of the Garhwal Himalaya; our work was supported by one grant from the National Science Foundation (INT-0217598) and one from the Oklahoma EPSCoR Program. Work in the Nanga Parbat massif was also supported by the National Science Foundation (EAR-9418839). Other ideas were developed as a result of conversations with scholars involved in the International Mountain Society, ICIMOD, the Mountain Forum, the Mountain Research Initiative, SHARE Asia, The Mountain Institute, USGS Western Mountain Initiative, USFS Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western Mountains (CIRMOUNT), and AAG Mountain Geography and Geomorphology specialty groups. The forty graduate students who have completed their degrees under my supervision through 2007 have served as excellent partners in research and have taught me far more, I suspect, than they have learned from me. This address was improved by comments from Mark Fonstad, Kathy Hansen, Carol Harden, Andrew Marcus, M. Duane Nellis, Olav Slaymaker, Jack Vitek, and David Zurick. The concepts presented in this address are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any of these individuals or organizations. Finally, I appreciate the support of friends, my wife Linda, and two children, Bryce and Brooke, who fortunately share my love of learning, travel, and adventure in mountains and on rivers.