Watch Us Do This Really Simple Science Experiment That Proves Donald Trump Wrong

Poll: Americans Starting To Worry About Climate Change Now That It Affects Their Lawns
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/04/poll-americans-starting-to-worry-about.html

The Guardian: John Oliver's Ciral Video Is The Best Climate Debate You'll Ever See

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-guardian-john-olivers-viral-video.html

Pro-Science Pontiff: Pope Francis On Climate Change, Evolution And The Big Bang

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-pro-science-pontiff-pope-francis-on.html

The Danger Of Carbon Dioxide As A Greenhouse Gas Was First Described In 1896
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-danger-of-carbon-dioxide-as.html

Sarah Palin: "Alaska Feels Impacts Of Climate Change More Than Any Other State"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/sarah-palin-alaska-feels-impact-of.html

Jon Stewart Probes The Spectacular Idiocy Of Climate Change Deniers

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/jon-stewart-probes-spectacular-idiocy.html

Stephen Colbert On Climate Change

"Sink Or Swim"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/06/stephen-colbert-on-climate-change.html

Watch Us Do This Really Simple Science Experiment That Proves Donald Trump Wrong

And almost screw it up.

—By Tim McDonnell

| Fri May 13, 2016

Climate change can be a hard thing to wrap your head around. It's really scary! The Earth is really complicated! There are a lot of numbers!

But if you want to know whether global warming is real, there's really only one thing you need to know: Does carbon dioxide trap heat in the atmosphere? Scientists have known the answer (yes) since at least 1895, when the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius did the first research on what came to be know as greenhouse gases. Some climate change questions are hard, like how to predict the movement of clouds in computer models. But the basic existence of the greenhouse effect is very straightforward and noncontroversial. Among scientists, that is. Donald Trumpand some other prominent Republican politicians are still struggling.

In fact, the greenhouse effect is so basic that you can even prove its existence with a simple DIY experiment. We got the idea from the great science communicator Bill Nye, who talked about it when he appeared on a recent episode of our Inquiring Minds podcast. We decided to give it a try, and it worked…barely. We're not scientists, okay?

TIM MCDONNELL

Climate Desk Associate Producer

Tim McDonnell is Climate Desk's associate producer. For more of his stories, click here. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email at tmcdonnell [at] motherjones [dot] com. RSS | TWITTER