The potential implications of climate change for culture, sacred landscapes and human spiritual activity receive little attention from the media, the scientific community, or the public. However, most of the world?s cultures place significant value on landscapes which depend on fragile ecosystems. In many cases peoples act as stewards and protectors of such ecosystems; their cultures and beliefs depend on the landscape and its particular form. Often the landscape depends on their maintenance and protection of it, especially in a rapidly-changing world. How will this change affect human interaction with the environment? What age-old knowledge and practices will be lost?
Mountain environments and the societies that inhabit them are profoundly impacted by global warming. This impact threatens not only to destroy the natural environment but to change the very nature of belief and ritual and even to alter sacred practices in these places. However, local knowledge can be tapped and mobilized in the service of conservation and environmental protection. Local communities are likely to be motivated activists and they know the landscape better than anyone else. They can thus work in close partnership with scientists and conservationists. Moreover, heightened awareness about the destruction of mountain ecosystems can help to motivate a wider concern for the survival of their cultures.
