Thanks for the succinct reply!

From a lay perspective, the mechanics of the equations are fascinating, because one would assume they are largely informed by past history.  Of course, this is a very simplistic take!

Even for people who try to be well-informed members of the public (who might be a minority!) there is a level of mystique and opacity in trying to understand the science.  (And quite likely, this is the time when opacity has to be cleared!)

One of the features around Earth system climate models that has been slowly growing in popular parlance the last decade and half, is the notion of "Earth energy budget", sometimes called the "Earth energy imbalance".  Do the equations factor this level of predictive physics into the observed data?   This was the real question all along :-D