Course
Beginner-friendlyHow the planet holds its heat
Work out where the extra heat comes from, where it goes, and why swapping the energy behind it is slow.
4 chapters · 15 lessons · about 71 min in total
The shape of it
15 lessons
About 71 minutes in total. Your progress is kept on this device — no account, nothing sent anywhere.
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The lessons
Chapter 1The blanket4 lessons · about 19 min
01Sunlight in, heat out
Work out why a planet settles at one temperature and not another.
About 5 min
02The blanket that lets light through
Explain how a few gases keep the ground about 33 degrees warmer than bare rock would be.
About 5 min
03A bath with the tap open
Tell apart cutting how fast carbon goes up and bringing the amount down.
About 5 min
04Old carbon and new carbon
Tell apart carbon that was already going round and carbon dug up from the ground.
About 5 min
Chapter 2What one degree does4 lessons · about 18 min
05The average moves, the edges jump
Work out why a small rise in the average makes rare hot days common.
About 5 min
06Weather is not climate
Spot a trend inside a wobbly line, and tell a cold week from a cooling world.
About 5 min
07The ocean is the store
Trace where the extra heat goes, and why the sea rises even before ice is counted.
About 5 min
08The slow parts keep moving
Predict which changes stop when warming stops, and which carry on for centuries.
About 5 min
Chapter 3Where the energy comes from4 lessons · about 19 min
09Four fifths from the ground
Work out how much of the world's energy still comes from coal, oil and gas, and where it goes.
About 5 min
10The price that leaves out the harm
Spot a cost that lands on someone who was not part of the sale.
About 5 min
11The grid must balance every second
Explain why electricity from wind and sun is cheap to make and hard to rely on.
About 5 min
12Built things get cheaper, dug things do not
Work out why a solar panel's price falls every year and coal's does not.
About 5 min
Chapter 4Changing it3 lessons · about 15 min
13Electrify, then clean the electricity
Trace why most plans start by turning a burning job into an electric one.
About 5 min
14The hard third
Name the things that cannot simply be plugged in, and the wall each one runs into.
About 5 min
15Taking a climate headline apart
Spot which of the course's five ideas a real headline is about.
About 5 min