Little On Why We Need To Appreciate Mountains
The theme of the year 2022 International Mountain Day is "Women Move
Mountains". This is an appreciation of the roles women play in mountains’
economic, social, and environmental development. "To highlight opportunities
for improved mountain development and to build alliances to implement
positive changes to both mountain people and environments around the world"
according to the UN.
Their feminity has seen them remain in rural mountainous regions, (rather
than move away to the urban areas like the men) and care for them; with the
care growing from just farming and animal husbandry to the use of cameras
and other equipments for becoming mountain experts in a number of ways.
Some mountain care and development activities are seen in the following
women; building and maintenance of mountain trails (Barb Richey); educating
recreationalists on causes of erosion and forest fires and climbing and
hiking (Barbara Budd); gathering data to test a new method of measuring
glacial change (Elizabeth Kimberley) (to mention but a few).
They can be characterised by Isolation: this comes as a
result of height as well as the natural disasters associated with some of
them such as avalanches and volcanoes; mountains being the only few natural
individuals with such characteristics; they may feel lonely atimes. Also,
residents on mountain heights may experience difficulty in accessing social
amenities.
They are characterised by coldness: this gives them the
ability to store fresh water for the dry days. They also make tropical
countries favourable in the hot, dry season, to people who are used to
living in colder conditions.
Mountains are also characterised by varying climates due to
differences in temperature at different heights from the mountain's peak to
foot. This property of theirs is reflected in different soil types.
Therefore, different plants and animals survive on mountains depending on
the environmental conditions they are adapted to. This increases
biodiversity in mountains and thus mountain ecosystems can be quite
resilient to environmental and human disturbances.
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Well, there is promotion of biodiversity; mountains create
ecological barriers useful for relative protection of mountain plants and
wildlife. The world's mountains are home 85% of all mammals, amphibians and
birds, and many of these animals are confined to the mountains. Therefore,
mountains create conditions that are favourable for a variety of organisms
like the Snow Leopard, Ibex, Mountain Goat, Mountain Gorilla, Alpine Marmot
and so on.
They are also sources of economic growth; mountains are
sites for recreation, and sport (extreme ones) They also have soils on which
crops such as tea, and rice can be grown. And physically, they create
conditions such as intense pressure and temperature for mineral ore
formation. Mountains have natural forests which make them good sources for
timber. These reasons can add a tangible increase to a country's economy if
well managed.
Society; 12% of the world’s population live in the
Mountains. Nearly 2 Billion people depend on Mountain food, water and
hydroelectricity. Its resources can be intriguing to people of all ages as
can be seen in activities like hiking, mountain climbing...
Mountains may also create an avenue for
increased productivity especially among the women of the
rural population. Also, because of their wonderful view and physical form,
they can be venues of thoughtful reflection on life as well as feeling of
achievement (after scaling a number of heights or overcoming other
difficulties they pose).
Weather: mountains create (orograpghic) rainfall. And if
there were no mountains, sea level would probably be higher than now. This
is because they can trap water (as ice) and release them in hot seasons. In
other words, they store and preserve freshwater for times when evaporation
is in season, and this can help with groundwater suffering depletion.
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Mountains and technology: for now, they are sources of raw
materials like copper (found in the Ural mountains of Russia), and antimony
which have use in tech products. Researches are also ongoing on mountains
like the Himalayas for inhabitants of the mountain, on better living and
farming facilities. Also, there is the use of remotely sensed imageries in
different fields such as water resource management, settlement,
biodiversity, geomorphology and so on, which affect mountains directly or
indirectly, and can be used by professionals and responsible organisations
to better plan and manage mountain resources. Therefore, as time goes on,
and mountain technologies are developed enough, they are bound to be
locations of dense population; because they are going to lose their
"isolation" feature. (I only hope the change is not drastic and biodiversity
does not suffer)
Mountains and climate change: they are still going to be
water towers for the foreseeable future. Population of human inhabitants of
the mountains in the climate change era may increase. This may foster
development in technologies for buildings and settlement facilities on
mountains. And if mountains are potential escapes for humans, they may also
be likewise for plants and other animals trying to adapt to climate change.
Mountains already account for 85% of mammals, amphibians and birds, and take
about 25% of global landmass. This may go to show that the climate and space
to accommodate more organisms is there; the only issue is having to scale
those heights.
Growth of extreme sports : over time, ease of successfully
scaling mountain heights, for mountain climbers have increased. Thanks to
better communication gear, training courses and mountain guides, improved
food and protective clothing, growth in extreme sports etc...
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