Actors, Structures and Environments: A comparative and transdisciplinary view on regional case studies of global environmental change

This chapter shows that all the regions considered can be classified as ‘marginal’. The marginality in most regions depicts some degree of sensitivity which can augment the endangerment of the regional ecosystem by any agricultural or gathering activity. There is a great regional variation in precipitation changes, both in sign and magnitude. In order to perform a pattern analysis of globally relevant interactions between nature and humankind, it is not possible to rely on a single best strategy, possibly based on a large set of data. ‘Generalized’ means that regionally specific processes and phenomena can be mapped onto one single symptom. Most prominent is the diffusion of greenhouse gases, in particular carbon dioxide, inducing a systemic global change of the atmosphere’s energy balance. Global Change is more than the pure addition or parallel occurrence of symptoms. It is the complex and sometimes highly inertial interaction between the symptoms which constitute the risks people are facing and have to handle.