  We introduce the special issue on the Statistical Mechanics of Climate
published on the Journal of Statistical Physics by presenting an informal
discussion of some theoretical aspects of climate dynamics that make it a topic
of great interest for mathematicians and theoretical physicists. In particular,
we briefly discuss its nonequilibrium and multiscale properties, the
relationship between natural climate variability and climate change, the
different regimes of climate response to perturbations, and critical
transitions.
