Yeah, I hear it's supposed to rain later today.

It's been super hot.

You know, Florida, we might hit a hundred today.

Yikes, Mom.

Well, stay hydrated.

Listen, I'm due in the studio right now, so I gotta go.

Okay, kiddo.

Love you.

Love you too.

Bye.

(inspiring music) Let me tell you, weather is the classic go-to conversation.

Right over here.

Hey, thank you.

Crazy weather, huh?

Oh my gosh, yes.

Because weather is everywhere and it affects everyone.

We are talking weather today on "Spotlight Earth."

(inspiring music) Standby.

Coming to you in three, two.

Welcome.

As we all obviously know, weather is a huge part of our daily lives.

It can impact where we live, how we dress, our moods, and so much more.

Weather refers to the conditions in the atmosphere at a specific place and time.

It's what's happening with the air temperature and the sky around us.

Weather results from changing atmospheric temperatures that cause the air to move.

The atmosphere starts about one meter below the Earth's crust and then extends more than 10,000 kilometers above it.

It protects the living things in the biosphere from the ultraviolet radiation emitted from the sun.

It also absorbs heat.

The scientists who study weather are called meteorologists.

They use tools like weather balloons and satellites to predict what the weather will be like in the future.

They come up with the weather forecasts you see on TV or on your weather app, providing valuable information about what to expect today and several days into the future.

So, what's the difference between weather and climate?

Well, weather is about short-term conditions, like what's happening today or this week.

Climate is the average weather in a place over time.

We're talking several decades.

Humorous Mark Twain said, "Climate is what we expect and weather is what we get."

Understanding climate helps us know what weather is typical for a specific area.

So, if you hear people talk about a tropical or desert climate, they're talking about the usual weather patterns in those places.

Remember, weather-related factors like temperature, rain, humidity, and wind affect the types of plants and animals that can survive in an ecosystem.

Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor are like a cozy blanket for our planet.

The way a blanket keeps us warm by trapping in our body heat under the covers, greenhouse gases trap in some of the heat from the sun, and that helps keep Earth's temperature suitable for life.

Without greenhouse gases, our planet would be frozen and uninhabitable.

When sunlight reaches Earth, some bounces back into space, but most of it is absorbed by the Earth's surface, the ground water and plants.

On the way to Earth, the atmosphere is transparent to the sun's energy, but after it is absorbed and reradiated from Earth's surface, it is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Think of how a car heats up inside on a sunny day.

That is the greenhouse effect, caused by the sun's energy coming in through the car's windows and then being trapped inside.

Earth's atmosphere has changed many times in the past 4.6 billion years, but it has been relatively stable in the last 200 million years.

All the ecosystems and organisms we've been talking about on "Spotlight Earth" have evolved in this particular atmosphere.

When humans add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere in larger quantities, we are essentially making earth's blanket thicker.

We do this primarily by burning fossil fuels, like coal and oil, and by removing vegetation like trees, which convert carbon dioxide.

We are destabilizing this planet's atmosphere and causing a change in the planetary climates.

To understand these concepts better, let's head to the lab, where Ellen has an experiment to teach us more about the science of greenhouse gases.

Hey there.

Welcome to our "Spotlight Earth" lab.

Today, we're gonna look at the science to see how fossil fuel combustion impacts the Earth's atmospheric temperatures.

I've collected all the materials we'll need for this experiment.

I've got two clear containers with lids, two digital thermometers with temperature probes, two grow lamps, 30 milliliters of warm water, dry ice, tongs, gloves, black construction paper that I've already cut and crafted, a yard stick, and we'll use the timer on my phone to keep track of time.

I've already labeled the containers: one as control and one that has additional CO2.

Next, I'm gonna place a few pellets of dry ice into the warm water- (relaxed music) and place the beaker into the CO2 container so it fills with carbon dioxide.

The CO2 in this container represents the layer of greenhouse gases that surround the earth.

We'll need to wait until the dry sublimates to fill the container with CO2 gas.

While that's happening, I'm gonna place the temperature probe into the container with CO2.

I wanna do this quickly to prevent the CO2 from escaping.

Then I seal the container.

Now, we're gonna set up our second temperature probe in the container with regular atmospheric air.

This is our control.

(relaxed music) (relaxed music continues) We'll set up the heat lamps, one over each container.

We're measuring to make sure that the lamps are equidistant from the containers.

Before we start collecting data, we want to wait until the temperatures within the containers are the same.

Okay, they're even up.

I'm gonna go ahead and start the timer.

For the next 20 minutes, I'm gonna record the temperature for every two minutes to see how the temperatures change over time.

(relaxed music) (relaxed music continues) Done.

Let's see how the temperatures in these containers compare to each other over time.

You can see that the temperature of the control remained lower than that of the CO2 container, and this is especially interesting if we graph these data points onto a line graph.

So, why did this happen?

Well, carbon dioxide is an important gas in the Earth's atmosphere to keep our planet habitable.

Releasing too much CO2 into the atmosphere can increase the Earth's overall temperatures.

Thanks, Ellen.

Cool experiment.

Carbon dioxide is essential to life on Earth.

It's released through organisms respiring, the decomposition of vegetation, the venting of volcanoes, and naturally occurring wildfires.

However, it is also a byproduct of burning fossil fuels by power companies and other businesses, our gas-powered vehicles, and anything that burns non-renewable energy sources.

The release of other greenhouse gases, like methane and nitrous oxide, also plays a role in climate change, though not to the extent of carbon dioxide.

Differences in climate significantly impact ecosystems across the globe.

These impacts can be complex and interconnected.

They not only affect individual species within ecosystems, but also the interactions between species and the overall health and biodiversity of the ecosystem.

Recognizing these effects is essential for understanding the consequences of climate change on our planet's ecosystems, and also for developing strategies to mitigate these impacts.

There is also a strong relationship between global climate change and the number and size of extreme weather events, like hurricanes, tornadoes, and heat and cold waves.

So, while greenhouse gases are essential for keeping our planet warm enough to sustain life, we must be careful not to add too much of them to the atmosphere.

That's why people talk about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and finding cleaner ways to power our homes and cars to help protect Earth's climate for future generations.

Limiting our impact on Earth's climate is essential, and we will learn more in future episodes.

Thanks for joining us.

See you next time on "Spotlight Earth."

(serene music) (serene music ends)