I study how the various processes in the atmosphere conspire to establish climate, how these processes might be expected to control the way climate changes, and how the atmosphere will ultimately interact with the oceans and other components of Earth. Clouds and water vapour in particular remain poorly understood in many respects, but are very important not only in bringing rain locally, but also to global climate. Tropospheric convection (disturbed weather) is a key process by which the atmosphere transports water and energy and in the process creates clouds -- but is a turbulent phenomenon for which we have no basic theory and which observations cannot yet fully characterise.