ABSTRACT
Mountain regions are found on all of the world’s continents. With the exception of Antarctica’s mountains, all of these regions are inhabited to a greater or lesser extent. As Ives (1992:xiv) has noted, ‘mountains and uplands comprise about a fifth of the world’s terrestrial surface. Furthermore, they provide the direct lifesupport base for about a tenth of humankind and indirectly affect the lives of more than half.’ Given these statistics, the question posed in the title is not merely academic: changes in mountain climates have the potential to affect hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people.
