Climate and Earth systems treat climate as an interacting set of processes linking the atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, biosphere, and land surface. Temperature and rainfall matter, but so do circulation patterns, seasonality, extremes, feedbacks, and thresholds that shape how climate is experienced on the ground.
Posts in this category range from basic geology, to exploring present-day climate from a systems perspective. They draw on climatology, physical geography, and Earth system science. Topics include sedimentology, plate tectonics, and climate classification.
Rather than focusing on prediction or policy, these essays are concerned with understanding: how climates function, how they differ from place to place, and why similar mean conditions can produce very different environmental outcomes. Particular attention is given to the problem of simplification—what is lost when complex systems are reduced to single indices or summary values.
The underlying theme of these posts is the connection between basic geology and climate, as fundamental to understanding climate as a dynamic system.