The yield flashes before the stock moves.
Donella Meadows on delays. People feel the reward now. The system answers later.
Donella Meadows wrote that delays are a common reason systems surprise us. The reward and the cost are not in the same beat. A fishery, a budget, a battery, a classroom habit: use feels fine now. The stock answers later.
A dashboard can show both numbers at once and still leave the delay as a caption. A short game puts the delay in the hand. Take two, the yield bar flashes, and only then does the pile shrink. Leave it, and the stock grows by one quiet unit. After three seasons the name, delay, has somewhere to land.
The scene on the climate page is a toy of that pattern. It is not a carbon model, and it is not an impact figure. It is the decision a company, a city, or a classroom can steer before anyone files the report.
Source: Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Chelsea Green Publishing.