Impact Trust • Working glossary
Situational awareness (climate)
The ability to perceive and comprehend what is actually happening in the climate system with all its cascading consequences – not just what models predict but what is manifesting at the extreme ends of probability distributions.
Details
Our Take
Adapted from military usage. Two dimensions: awareness of what we must avoid (tipping points) AND awareness of what we probably will not avoid and must navigate through. Practical framing for operational planning. What the think-do tank is trying to build: the capacity to see the climate situation as it actually is, not as institutional planning assumptions say it should be.
Examples of Use
SCRI, military terminology adapted
Synonyms/Variants
Climate intelligence; Operational awareness; Real-time risk comprehension
Typical everyday wording
Actually seeing what is happening with the climate, not just what models say.
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