Understanding Earth-system response across different background states is critical for interpreting past climate changes, improving present-day projections, and assessing future risks. However, many existing frameworks were developed for small perturbations from the present-day state and do not fully capture the nonlinear, state-dependent nature of climate forcing, response, and potential recovery.

This session aims to bring together the paleoclimate, climate dynamics, and modeling communities to develop a holistic picture of how Earth-system forcing, feedbacks, and large-scale circulation evolve under different climate states. We welcome studies addressing (1) risk of extreme warming under continued CO2 emissions, (2) evolution of climate sensitivity across Earth’s history and implications for the future, (3) reversibility of climate change and potential tipping points, and (4) ability of climate models to represent state dependence in Earth-system processes. Contributions from theory, modeling, and paleoclimate perspectives are encouraged to advance our understanding of how Earth-system response changes with background state.