How Much Warming?

National Research Council, The National Academies

This short video, is the fifth in the National Academies Climate Change, Lines of Evidence series. It focuses on greenhouse gases, climate forcing (natural and human-caused), and global energy balance.

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Notes from our reviewers

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Video could be paused from time to time during viewing for further explanation and questions; it is too dense to show all at once.
This video documents how human activities are affecting global temperatures. A good treatment of greenhouse gases, climate forcing agents, and feedback loops in climate change. The unit "watt" is used incorrectly in this video. A watt is a unit of power, not energy. Energy is measured in Joules, and can be expressed as a watt multiplied by a unit of time (ex. a kilowatt-hour is a unit of energy, a kilowatt is a unit of power). Comments from expert scientist: Good overview of the science with no major errors.
A lot of information is packed into the video - teacher will need to unpack terms and concepts that are presented rather quickly. The other six videos in this series, plus a booklet, and copies of all the graphics and figures used in the booklet are available here: [link http://nas-sites.org/americasclimatechoices/videos-multimedia/climate-change-lines-of-evidence-videos/ 'Climate Change: Lines of Evidence']. The booklet is also available in Spanish. The National Academy of Science is a highly respected body of scientists, and this is an important point to raise with students.