Sustainable development of polar and high-mountain regions of the world - the change of the polar paradigm.

The article discusses the modern periglacial environment of high-latitude and high-altitude regions that extends from the cold limits of forest to the snowline. Within a compact space, several sharply contrasting mountain landscape belts interchange. Living organisms there are particularly affected by cosmic and random-destructive forces. Precisely in these areas, various global geographical, geological, and biological problems are manifested most vividly. The upper limits of agriculture and their importance for high-altitude areas in the main mountain systems of the world are considered. Tourism changes the periglacial environment approach paradigm from the use- and risk-management perspective to the axiological, with attractive categories, angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]