“This site’s information helps people understand global warming’s scientific mechanism. The 5 videos below explain how global warming (related to climate change) works in as few as 52 seconds. Even our most chemistry-rich video is less than 5 minutes long. Please click on the version you want to watch.”

How Global Warming Works: Climate Change’s Mechanism Explained by Professor Michael Ranney, Dr. Daniel Reinholz, and Dr. Lloyd Goldwasser (with help from Professor Ronald Cohen)

You may have heard of global climate change, which is often called “global warming.” Whether or not people accept that humans are causing global warming, most folks have an opinion about it. But how much do regular people understand the science of climate change? If you were asked to explain how global warming works, could you? Take a moment to try to explain to yourself how virtually all climate scientists think the Earth is warming. What is the physical or chemical mechanism?

Don’t feel bad; if you’re anything like the people we’ve surveyed in our studies, you probably struggled to come up with an explanation. In fact, in one study, we asked almost 300 adults in the US––and not a single person could accurately explain the mechanism of global warming at a pretty basic level. This is consistent with larger surveys that have shown that people often lack knowledge about climate change. But how can we make informed decisions without understanding the issues we’re debating?

Allow us to give you a short explanation of how global warming works…”