We investigate the mental representation of environmental risks with special emphasis on global change. We propose a multi-level framework of the causal structure of global risks with five causally connected levels: attitudes, activities, emissions, environmental changes and negative consequences for humans. We contrast two approaches in the literature on the mental representation of risks, mental models and psychometric dimensions. Both approaches are viewed from the multi-level framework perspective. We argue that the mental representation corresponds to the multi-level framework and present several empirical studies which support this assumption. Finally, we discuss the relationship between the mental representation of environmental risks and environmental behavior.