Why is the study of climate important? Scientific data shows that Earth is getting warmer. Inez and other scientists think that this is caused by increases in the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our planet's atmosphere. Inez wants to answer important questions like how carbon dioxide causes global warming and how warm Earth might eventually get.

Studying climate is a challenge—you can't control it or contain it in a lab. Since Inez can't experiment directly with Earth's climate, she re-creates it through mathematical models. A model shows how a process works, like how ocean currents move or how winds blow. Inez's climate models are complex software programs that run on the world's fastest computers. She uses these models to predict Earth's future climate.