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(a)
V
Near-linear and non-critical transitions
Non-critical transition
Near-linear transition
T
(b)
V
Critical transition
c
b
Threshold jump
Zone of transition
a
T
i
ii
iii
iv
Fig. 6.11
(a)Anear-linearrelationshipbetweentwovariablesandarelationshipwithanon-criticaltransition.(b)A
relationshipbetweentwovariablesthatincludesacriticaltransition.Seetextfordiscussion.
The idea of critical transitions in complex systems came more to the fore in popular
science in the 1980s with catastrophe theory and bifurcation theory and in the 1990s
with chaos theory.
Examples of near-linear and non-critical (sometimes called non-catastrophic)
transitions are given in Figure 6.11a. (The example of a linear transition is not
given, as this is simply a straight line.) Figure 6.11b shows a critical transition (or
catastrophic transition in the parlance of catastrophe theory). This shows two states
that are not directly connected. Consider two variables, V and T . If it helps, as this is
a topic about global warming you might consider T to be temperature and, to take a
 
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