Climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system.
At a glance
Key signals
33% cross fields · reaches 6 more
- Earth & Space Sciences
- Climatology
- Explanation
- Examples
- Misconception
- Sourced relations 5
- Attribution
Dependencies
What this concept builds on and what it makes possible — derived from the atlas’s dependency, causal and structural relations, not from every related edge.
Foundations · builds on
Climate changedepends onGreenhouse gasEstablished
climate change depends on greenhouse gas.
Mechanism: Human-driven climate change is caused chiefly by rising greenhouse gases trapping more heat.
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
Enables · leads to
Desertificationdepends onClimate changeEstablished
desertification depends on climate change.
Mechanism: Desertification is worsened by climate change: shifting rainfall and rising heat dry out marginal land until it can no longer support vegetation.
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
Climate changecausesSea level riseEstablished
climate change causes sea level rise.
Mechanism: Climate change raises sea level two ways: warmer water expands, and melting glaciers and ice sheets add more water to the ocean.
- Wikidata verifiedmoderate evidence
Structural role & consequence
Interpreted from the current atlas graph — what the connections mean, not just how many there are.
Directly enables 1 concept; following enables/causes relations, 1 concept is downstream across 2 disciplines.
structural · Follows only enables/causes dependency edges — not general relatedness.
Currently dark in the atlas: no key date stored · 6 of 6 of its relations lack claim-level evidence.
atlas representation · Describes the current Thinking OS representation, not the state of the world.
Builds on 1 foundation (requires / depends-on / derived-from / emerges-from).
structural · Structural graph analysis — not a claim of importance, causation or history.
Exercises 2 annotated mental models — a concept that connects several thinking patterns.
curated · Curated annotations, not a derived measure.
cross-field
4 within-field, 2 cross-field
Strengths & constraints
Strengths
- Redundantly connected — removing it leaves the sampled cross-field routes unchanged. structural
Constraints
- Evidence coverage currently thin in the atlas — few of its relationships carry claim-level evidence. atlas representation
- No dated history stored — the atlas records no key date for this concept. atlas representation
Conditions
- Its dependency reading rests on 1 foundation relation. structural
- Read structurally — most of its relationships carry no external evidence yet, so claims here are graph-derived. structural
Dependency radial
What this concept builds on (left) and what it makes possible (right) — derived from dependency and causal relations.
What builds on this
1 concept build on this directly, 1 in total, across 2 disciplines.
Structural downstream reach along dependency edges — not a claim of historical necessity.
Seen through each discipline
How this concept sits in each of its fields — derived from its real connections in the graph, not asserted.
Through this lens it connects to Carbon sink, Sea level rise, Greenhouse gas and Desertification.
Through this lens it connects to Carbon sink, Sea level rise and Greenhouse gas.
Related ideas to explore
Concepts that look related but are not yet connected here — candidates for a connection to reason about, not established links.
This idea also appears in…
The same structure shows up in other disciplines. These are real recurrences drawn from the graph — a starting point for asking “what carries over, and what changes?”
Feedback loop47 disciplines · 44 concepts
Thresholds & tipping points23 disciplines · 15 concepts
Concepts
shares a mental model · shares a mental model
shares a mental model · shares a mental model
shares a mental model · crosses a discipline boundary
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
Mental models at work here
Feedback loop
A loop where an effect feeds back to change its own cause. Reinforcing loops amplify change; balancing loops resist it.
Ask: does the result push the system further in the same direction, or pull it back?
Thresholds & tipping points
A level below which little happens and above which the behaviour changes sharply — sometimes irreversibly.
Some changes are gradual; others wait, then flip all at once.
- Connects 6 other ideas across 2 disciplines.
- A cross-disciplinary bridge — its connections reach into 6 other fields.
- Most of its connections are of the “Cause & effect” kind.
- It exercises 2 reusable thinking patterns.
Derived from the graph’s real structure — observations, not a score.
Sources
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
- Wikidata verifiedmoderate evidence