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THE ENVIRONMENT AND ANTHROPOLOGY 117 cooperate with diverse disciplines and contribute their anthropological knowledge to the common stock. They deemed it important to voice the warning that scientific knowledge is also culturally determined and not objective, so this knowledge must also be handled critically. They must render the results of anthropologists understandable and accessible for local, regional and global policy makers and communities with that critical attitude (Crumley 2001). Ecological anthropologists fight for the preservation of habitats and the importance of biodiversity and cultural diversity on the basis of anthropological knowledge, and use this knowledge to fight against environmental risks, in opposition to the forces of the state and global economy. This requires that they be in contact with political ecology, the Green movements and Green lobbies, and other actors who listen to and both can and want to use their knowledge. Environmental anthropologists are concerned not only with tribal cultures, but also, for instance, with consumer society as well, which is one of the sources of the environmental problems, if not the greatest. The holistic approach incorporated in anthropology is fundamental for the study of individual elements in a broad global context (Borsos 2004: 71-72). The place of anthropology in contemporary environmental questions Since the turn of the millennium, anthropology has been actively involved in environmental, climate-change related research.° This may be attributed to the grave effect of environmental changes on the groups and places habitually studied by anthropology; to the acknowledgement of the importance of investigating the human dimensions of climate change; and to the fact that anthropological knowledge both allows and requires anthropologists to take part in diverse interdisciplinary research projects regarding climate change and adaptation to it. According to a basic tenet of anthropology, culture determines how people perceive, understand, experience and respond to the elements of key importance in the world in which they live. This applies to their natural environment, too, and is particularly important when the world is undergoing a radical change.’ Anthropology attempts to explore the interpretive framework with typical in-depth investigation. In their study on anthropology’s position on climate change, Carla Roncoli, Todd Crane and Ben Orlove posited four axioms, the examination of which, in their view, leads to the understanding of the following processes: 1. how people perceive climate change through the lens of their culture (“perception”); 2. how people comprehend what they see based on their mental models and social Bruno Latour clearly declares that the current situation is a great chance —a gift — for anthropology, for the disciplines which deal with contemporary environmental questions (geochemistry, economics, ecology, genetics, etc.) are forced to address issues belonging to the domain of anthropology (cited: Brightman — Lewis 2017: 23). The possible responses are determined by the cultural model of the given community; “the individual and collective adaptations are shaped by credible, desirable, feasible and acceptable common ideas” (Roncoli — Crane — Orlove 2009: 87).
