This presentation explores opportunities for potential cross-fertilization between natural and human sciences when looking at the same landscape using different lenses: the usefulness and limits of climate models and what can be gained from records and observations of people who have been living in this environment for centuries; reflections on the importance of mountains and glaciers with their associated cloud formations (that potentially interact with the monsoon systems); and the importance of dew for local moisture circulation(which is linked to vegetation cover and is vulnerable to land use changes). These features of the environment are often at the centre of Tibetan narratives that link landscape, weather and livelihood and can have both an ecological and a moral dimension. At the same time they are at the centre of scientific narratives informing actual policies that affect the livelihood of rural communities in China and shape the way in which they respond to the challenges of a changing environment.