---
name: Climate Change
slug: climate-change
type: planetary process
status: running
version: 1.2°C
released: "1750-01-01"
maintainer: Homo sapiens (unintentional)
dependencies:
  - carbon dioxide
  - methane
  - industrial capitalism
  - collective inaction
  - the sun
license: No one agreed to this
tags:
  - atmosphere
  - feedback loops
  - grief
  - geology
  - fire
  - sea
---

Climate Change

What it actually is

A planet writing a reply to everything we burned.

How it works

Heat arrives. Some heat leaves. The ratio shifts. Carbon dioxide thickens the air like a held breath. The ocean remembers every calorie. Ice, which is ancient patience made solid, lets go. The water has nowhere else to be.

It compounds. Feedback loops are not metaphors. They are math that accelerates. Permafrost thaws and exhales methane. Methane warms. More permafrost thaws. The loop does not ask permission.

Features

Extended fire seasons. The forests are drier than they have ever been patient with us.
Sea level rise. Slow, continuous, indifferent to property values.
Ocean acidification. Coral reefs are bleaching. The color leaves first, then everything else.
Displaced weather. Rain falls where it did not. Drought sits where rain used to.
Species migration and loss. Things that cannot move fast enough simply stop.

Known bugs

ERR_TIPPING_POINT_CROSSED     // some systems do not return
ERR_CONSENSUS_DELAY           // decades between signal and response
ERR_DISCOUNT_RATE             // future lives weighted less than current comfort
ERR_GREENWASHING_LOOP         // action.simulate() called instead of action.execute()
WARN_HOPE_MEMORY_LEAK         // optimism allocated, rarely freed

Configuration

pre_industrial_CO2_ppm: 280
current_CO2_ppm: 422
safe_threshold_ppm: 350          # missed. not deprecated, just gone.
global_mean_temp_delta: +1.2°C
committed_warming_floor: +1.5°C  # already in the pipeline
target: 1.5°C                    # aspirational
trajectory: 2.7°C                # operational

Note: The gap between target and trajectory is not a rounding error. It is a policy choice.

Edge cases

Small island nations compile this spec differently. For them it is not an edge case. It is the main loop.
Arctic amplification runs approximately four times faster than the global average. The poles are not waiting.
Climate and migration are not separate modules. They share a database.

FAQ

Is it natural? Natural systems exist. This is not one of them. The signal is in the isotopes.

Can it be reversed? Some of it. The slow parts, no. Glaciers that are already water do not unbecome water.

Is there hope? The question is too large for a boolean. Partial mitigation is real. The cost of action remains less than the cost of nothing. This is not comfort. It is arithmetic.

Who is responsible? Historically: a small number of nations and corporations. Presently: a slightly larger number. Structurally: fossil fuel infrastructure built before most people alive today were born. This does not simplify. It compounds.

Changelog

Version	Note
0.8°C	Scientists began to worry publicly
1.0°C	Worry confirmed
1.2°C	Current build. Stable in the worst sense.
1.5°C	Committed. Arriving regardless.
2.0°C	Each fraction is a different world
4.0°C	Deprecated: most of what we planned for

drafting spec…