ABSTRACT
The seriousness of the problem has been most clearly summarized by E. P. Eckholm in a review on the condition of the world's mountain environments. This chapter attempts to identify what humans do right in adjusting to the conditions of mountainous regions, and shows how certain changes are capable of disrupting the adaptive responses. Lowlanders who have acquired a meager knowledge of the operation of mountain human/environmental systems, and who may in part be responsible for creating the deteriorating conditions, see it as their responsibility to reverse this trend. Humans living in heterogeneous and unpredictable mountainous environments serve as particularly rich examples since they provide insights into how an adaptive system based on phenotypic plasticity adjusts to extreme spatial and temporal diversity. As mountains protrude high into the layer of atmosphere containing most weather phenomena and divide continental air masses, climatic harshness, variability and unpredictability is increased.
