Climate Basics
Climate science gets easier to follow once its core terms stop sliding around. These explainers build from energy, atmosphere, observations, and timescales rather than from slogans. Expect useful analogies with their limits clearly marked. Where confidence differs, the writing says so; where the evidence is strong, it does not perform false suspense.
Our Climate Future: What Models Actually Project
Climate models project continued near-term warming, with greater heat and other risks as warming increases.
Climate Scenarios Explained: Reading SSP Labels
Climate scenarios describe possible futures under stated assumptions, not forecasts of which future will occur.
The Greenhouse Effect Explained Without the Fog
The greenhouse effect is the process by which gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor absorb and re-emit some infrared energy leaving…
Keeling Curve Explained: Reading the CO2 Record
The Keeling Curve records atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, beginning in 1958.
Weather vs. Climate: The Difference That Matters
Weather is the short-term state of the atmosphere at a particular time and place, including rain, wind, and temperature.