Abstract
Environmental change related research has largely been conducted through scientific and quantitative approaches till date. Such approaches are not enough for understanding complex environmental change in the new geological epoch of Anthropocene. It will be argued that qualitative analysis can provide vital new insights for understanding environmental change in the Anthropocene. A number of examples from mountain regions will be offered as key examples to argue this issue, and to make the point that ‘natural’ systems today must be understood both as naturally occurring systems and as systems that are fundamentally transformed by human influence.
