Heidi Cullen, climate expert and correspondent for The Weather Channel and formerly a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado explains why scientists are so sure that our burning of oil, coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels is causing a disruption in the earth's climate systems.

The video is part of recently launched climate change science communications project called Climate Central.

There was a time, Stanford climatologist Stephen Schneider said today, when that appeared to be what American journalists were doing: covering up climate change. Schneider was the lead speaker In an opening plenary of the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference, entitled "Covering Climate Change," and he began by noting that all too recently, U.S. climate coverage had been dense and uncertain. Peer-reviewed papers endorsed by the best scientists in the world were given the same space and credence as the latest one-off report by the apologists for an oil-industry-funded think tank.

Sitting before 300-plus reporters currently working the environment beat, Schneider quickly added, "It's not that bad any more."

The Weather Channel's Heidi Cullen has found herself in a hailstorm of abuse after having had the impertinence to suggest that the science behind climate change is compelling and the deniers are politicizing the issue for their own purposes.

Come on, who doesn't love the weather channel? Now there is even more reason to watch. The 24-hour weather watch-dog has announced it will be airing a new feature called "The Climate Code" with host Heidi Cullen, a Columbia PhD in climatology and ocean atmosphere dynamics, whose most recent stint was at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research.