Welcome back student climatologists! Yesterday, you analyzed graphs and confirmed that ice on Earth is decreasing, while temperature is increasing! But what could be causing ice to melt and temperatures to increase on Earth? Today we will explore the new Earth’s Changing Climate Simulation, a tool you will use starting today and for the rest of this unit to investigate the relationships between our atmosphere, energy within the Earth system and temperature! When we refer to the Earth system, we mean Earth's atmosphere.

Imagine it snowed late last night, and as you leave to walk to school in the morning, a large pile of snow has been shoveled right up against the doorstep. Hours later when you return from school the huge pile is almost entirely melted.

All scientists, including climate scientists, constantly make and evaluate claims as new evidence comes along. When scientists find new evidence to support their claims, it makes their arguments stronger.

However scientists sometimes need to discard their claims when data is not reliable or data refutes the claim.