# Climate Change **Domain:** Earth System Science **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Classification:** Infrastructure Concept **Maturity:** Foundational **Related:** [[Climate Science]], [[Climate Modeling]], [[Climate Systems]], [[Greenhouse Effect]], [[Energy Systems]], [[Anthropogenic Impact]] --- ## Definition **Climate Change** refers to **long-term shifts in planetary temperature, precipitation, atmospheric composition, and oceanographic patterns resulting from increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, primarily carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion, which is changing the energy balance of Earth's climate system**. Change includes warming, regional precipitation shifts, sea level rise, and increased extreme weather intensity. --- ## General Context Climate change is established science: atmospheric CO₂ concentrations have risen from 280 ppm (preindustrial) to 420+ ppm (2023), temperatures have risen ~1.1°C since 1850, and impacts (melting ice, shifting ecosystems, extreme weather) are widely documented. The scientific consensus (97%+ of climate scientists) is that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are the primary cause. Climate change will continue even with emissions reductions due to atmospheric residence time of CO₂. --- ## Ecological Systems Context Climate change alters precipitation, temperature, and seasonality across ecosystems, forcing adaptive evolution or migration. Rates of change exceed many species' adaptive capacity, driving extinction. --- ## Key Insight Climate change represents **the thermodynamic consequence of energy systems design**—not a natural fluctuation but an outcome of infrastructure choices that concentrate atmospheric carbon. --- ## See Also [[Climate Adaptation]], [[Climate Justice]], [[Climate Denial]], [[Climate Finance]], [[Climate Modeling Infrastructure]]