The socio-economic-natural ecosystem of rangeland in China has undergone substantial transformations, primarily due to the global climate change and increased human activity involvement. This article focuses on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which constitutes approximatively one-third of China’s pastureland resources and serves a variety of functions in terms of ecology, economy, politics and culture. The objective is to systematically discuss changes in water and heat conditions, vegetation quality, soil physicochemical properties, atmospheric oxygen content, and further explore its unique natural and socioeconomic factors. The findings reveal a climate shift on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, characterized by warming and drying in the southeast and warming and wetting in the northwest. Specific manifestations of pastureland degradation include reverse succession of vegetation communities, reduced forage yields, soil coarsening, increased soil erosion, and reduced oxygen content. Although the implementation of pastureland ecological restoration programs and property rights reform have mitigated degradation in general, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as a whole remains at risk of ecological degradation, and global climate change might further cause the plateau’s natural ecology to suffer from increased uncertainty. Future research should address pressing ecosystem management issues such as the connection between an increase in rodents and the degradation of pastureland, the harmony between wildlife protection and grazing, the tension between traditional culture and modern animal husbandry, the scientific robustness of ecological restoration models, and the impact of changes in atmospheric oxygen content on plateau animal husbandry industry under climate change.