Sunlight warms Earth’s surface. The surface emits infrared energy. Greenhouse gases absorb and emit some infrared, slowing heat loss to space and keeping the surface warmer than it would otherwise be. Burning coal, oil, and gas adds carbon dioxide. Added greenhouse gases cause warming, with effects on ice, oceans, and weather patterns. Safety: No heat, flames, chemicals, sealed vessels, or distressing disaster images. Stop: Stop after the paper mechanism. No heated jars, lamps, burning fuels, melting-ice tests, or predictions for your home.

Materials: Paper; Pencil; Two colours if available 1. Draw Sun, Earth’s surface, an atmosphere band, and Space. Draw a short-wave sunlight arrow to the surface. Draw long-wave infrared arrows from the surface upward; show some reaching space and some absorbed and emitted by the atmosphere both upward and downward. Label arrows by energy type, not trapped sunlight. 2. Write and order four cards: fossil fuel burning adds CO2; atmospheric CO2 increases; outgoing infrared energy is affected; Earth warms until energy entering and leaving balance again. Keep the Sun arrow unchanged to show this is not a brighter-Sun explanation. 3. Add two consequence branches: warming land ice can melt and add water to the ocean; warming seawater expands and contributes to sea-level rise. Add a third note: warming changes weather patterns, but a specific day’s storm needs separate attribution evidence. 4. Write a three-sentence explanation linking the energy diagram, human CO2 input, and two consequences. Include that the natural greenhouse effect supports life; adding more greenhouse gases changes that existing balance. Do not test this with jars or lamps. Done: A labelled energy diagram, four-card cause chain, two sea-level mechanisms, and a three-sentence bounded explanation are complete. Proof: Keep the diagram and explanation. Note help supplying energy labels or linking causes. No temperature experiment was performed. Stop: Stop after the paper mechanism. No heated jars, lamps, burning fuels, melting-ice tests, or predictions for your home.