The Climate Classroom

🌍 Episode 16 — Your Climate Toolkit 🐾 Belle’s Question “What can kids actually do about climate change?” 💡 If you remember one thing No single person can solve climate change alone. But small actions, repeated by many people, can help new ideas become normal. 🔍 What we cover • Why climate change is connected to energy, transport, food, buildings and industry • Why individual actions still matt...

🎧 Episode 15 — Show Notes 🏠 Episode title: Homes, Buildings & Climate 🐾 Belle’s Question: How can buildings affect climate? 📌 If you remember one thing: Buildings affect climate through the materials they use, the energy that powers them, and the way they are designed — and better choices can greatly reduce their climate footprint. 🔍 What we cover: Human-made stuff now outweighs all livin...

Episode 14 — The Hidden Carbon in Things 🎧 Belle’s Question “What is the hidden carbon in things?” 🌍 If you remember one thing… Many products create greenhouse gases before we even use them — through mining, manufacturing, transport, and the materials they are made from. 📦 What we cover This episode explores “embodied carbon”: the hidden greenhouse gases created before a product reaches us. We...

🐾 Belle’s Question “How do our travel choices affect climate change?” 📌 If you remember one thing Different kinds of transport create very different amounts of greenhouse gases per passenger — and cleaner energy can make transport much cleaner over time. 🔍 What we cover • What a carbon footprint means • What CO2e means • Why transport is responsible for roughly one quarter of global energy-rela...

🎧 Episode 12 — Show Notes 🐾 Belle’s Question: Do the food choices we make really affect the climate? 📌 If you remember one thing: Different foods have very different climate footprints — because of how they are produced — so small, sensible changes can make a real difference. 🔍 What we cover: What CO₂e means, and why every food has an invisible “climate receipt”. Why food systems produce rough...

Episode 11 Show Notes 🎧 The Warming World: Animals in Changing Habitats 🐾 Belle’s Question What happens when an animal’s habitat starts changing? 📌 If you remember one thing:  Every living creature has a natural home — its habitat. When climate changes that habitat, some creatures move, some struggle to survive, and some may disappear. But people can help protect, restore, and reconnect the hab...

🎧 Episode 10 — Heatwaves, Drought & Fire 🐾 Belle’s Question Why does climate change make heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires more likely? 📌 If you remember one thing A warmer world increases the risk of more intense heat, faster drying, and conditions where fires can spread more easily. 🔍 What we cover • The difference between a heatwave, a drought, and a wildfire • Why hotter air increases...

🎧 Episode 9 — The Rising Sea: Warming Oceans & Melting Ice 🐾 Belle’s Question: Why is sea level rising even where there’s no ice nearby? 📌 If you remember one thing: Sea level rises because warmer ocean water takes up more space, and melting land ice adds more water to the sea. 🔍 What we cover: • Sea level rises in two main ways: warmer seawater expands, and melting land ice adds water to...

🐾 Belle’s Question: Why does melting ice make warming happen even faster? 📌 If you remember one thing: Ice helps cool Earth by reflecting sunlight — so when bright ice melts and darker land or ocean is revealed, the planet absorbs more heat. 🔍 What we cover • What albedo means: how reflective a surface is. Bright surfaces reflect more sunlight; dark surfaces absorb more. • Why ice and snow matt...

🎧  Episode 7 Show Notes 🌊  Episode title: The Hidden Heat: Why the Ocean Takes the Hit 🐾  Belle’s Question: If the planet is warming… where does most of the heat actually go? 📌  If you remember one thing: The oceans absorb more than 90% of the extra heat — and that changes everything. 🔍  What we cover • Why the ocean absorbs most of the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases. • Why water can...

Show Notes How can climate change mean bigger floods and worse droughts? In this episode, Graham and Belle explore how a warmer atmosphere acts like a bigger sponge - holding more water, releasing heavier rain, and also drying land out faster. They also look at “sponge cities”: places designed to soak up, store and slowly release rainwater using green roofs, rain gardens, permeable surfaces and we...

If trees help clean the air, what happens when we cut them down? In this episode of The Climate Classroom, Graham and Belle explore how forests store carbon, why deforestation is sometimes called a “double hit” for the climate, and whether we can make forests worth more alive than cut down. 🌍 If you remember one thing: Forests are part of the planet’s carbon balance. Cutting them down releases st...

🎧 Episode 4 — Show Notes 🐾 Belle’s Question: If CO₂ is the problem… why do people worry about methane? 📌 If you remember one thing: Methane traps much more heat than CO₂ — but it doesn’t last as long. 🔍 What we cover • Why methane matters: it’s a very strong heat-trapping gas, but it stays in the atmosphere for a much shorter time than CO₂. • Where methane comes from (global picture): most hum...

ANCIENT CARBON — WHERE CO₂ COMES FROM (AND WHY IT MATTERS) IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING: Climate change isn’t about CO₂ being “bad” — it’s about adding extra ancient carbon faster than nature can remove it. When you’re stuck in a traffic jam, it’s easy to think: this must be what’s driving climate change. Cars do matter — but this episode shows why they’re only part of a much bigger carbon story that b...

Why Is the Earth Warming? The Greenhouse Effect Explained If you remember one thing:  Earth warms until energy in = energy out — greenhouse gases slow the “heat out”. When the Sun warms Earth by day, where does that heat go at night — and why doesn’t it all escape to space? Today: the greenhouse effect, explained calmly and simply. 🐾  Belle’s Question “Why doesn’t all the Sun’s heat just bounce b...

What Is Climate? (and how is it different from weather?) If you remember one thing: “Weather is what you get. Climate is what you expect.” If today’s forecast says “heavy rain”, does that mean the climate has changed? This episode clears up the most common mix-up in climate conversations - calmly, simply, and without jargon. 🐾 Belle’s Question “What’s the difference between weather and climate -...