How to Fool a Class with the Greenhouse Effect

David Archer is explaining the greenhouse effect in his class for non-science students on Global Warming at the University of Chicago, which he starts off with:

• It is hard for people outside the field to know exactly how much to believe that stuff, right?

The critical moment occurs at time 16:20 of Lecture 5 where Prof. Archer introduces backradiation or DLR from the atmosphere to the Earth surface.

Watch this moment carefully: Notice how Archer pulls backradiation seemingly from out of nowhere and by a long tense silence lets it sink into the minds of the students, without justification only backed by authority. This is effective teaching at a top US university.