How do you explain Global Warming to children?

Gases like the air we breathe float up into the sky all around us. Some of these gases are good at catching the heat from the sun. We call them greenhouse gases and the main one is the carbon gas. They stay around and keep the earth warm. This is called the greenhouse effect and it is a good thing. We have had the natural greenhouse effect since before humans started living on earth.

But now a bad thing is happening. Every time a factory uses its machines, or we drive a car or a truck, or even use electricity in our homes, people have to burn coal or oil to make it all happen. And burning coal and oil puts too much of these greenhouse gases into the air.

Another mistake was cutting down too many trees. Trees and bushes can suck in that carbon gas and store it safely inside the wood. So now there are not enough trees to suck in the carbon any more.

So because of these two things, burning oil, and cutting down trees, the natural greenhouse effect that we used to have has turned into the accelerated greenhouse effect getting faster and faster. This is why global warming is happening. It is making the earth too warm.

A:

Global warming is caused by human emissions of carbon dioxide, from the burning of fossil fuels for the purposes of transportation and power generation.The only way to stop global warming is to stop burning fossil fuels.  

A:

I would start by explaining that energy comes to our world from the sun as visible light and warms the surface of the world. This warmth is goes back into space, but some is stopped by greenhouse gases in the air above us, keeping the world warmer than it otherwise would be. I would then say that if people increase the amount of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, as we do by burning coal and oil, then more heat is trapped on the earth. This can interfere with nature and cause damaging changes to our weather.