Lead by Dr. Richard Wolfson, a physicist at
Middlebury College, who has written and taught
extensively about climate change. A Great Courses
program facilitated by Liban Mohammed, PhD
Candidate at UW-Madison. Fee $5.

Whatever your views on climate change, it’s
important to understand how the current scientific
consensus on global warming evolved out of
basic physical principles and a broad range of
observations. In a lucid presentation designed for
nonscientists, you will learn about:
The difference between climate and weather
The concept of energy balance, which
governs the natural warming of the planet by
the Sun and is the key to a stable climate
The greenhouse effect, which makes Earth
warmer and more hospitable than it would
otherwise be due to naturally occurring gases
in the atmosphere
he carbon cycle, which controls the rate at
which carbon dioxide released by fossil-fuel
combustion accumulates in the atmosphere,
and how long it remains to enhance the natural
greenhouse effect.

Earth’s Changing Climate addresses only scientific
issues and makes no policy recommendations.