An atmospheric scientist whose landmark research showed that cutting emissions of ‘black carbon’ or soot can significantly lessen the impacts of climate change, improve the health of millions of rural poor, and avoid crop losses, is to receive a 2013 Champions of the Earth award; the UN ’s highest environmental accolade.
Veerabhadran Ramanathan – Distinguished Professor of Climate and Atmospheric Sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego and UNESCO Professor of Climate & Policy, TERI University, New Delhi, India – co-led an international research team that in 1997 first discovered the climate impact in Asia of widespread air pollution, known as the atmospheric brown cloud (ABC).
Ramanathan was born in Madurai,India. At the age of 11, he moved with his family to Bangalore.Unfortunately, the classes at the school he attended were taught in English, and not his native Tamil. He admits that he lost the habit of listening to his teachers and had to figure out things on his own. He received his bachelors degree in engineering from Annamalai University and a masters degree from the Indian Institute of Science. In 1970, he arrived in the United States.
In March 2007, Ramanathan wrote a white paper with Balakrishnan on a potential project that will reduce air pollution and global warming Project Surya, which means Sun in Sanskritwill use inexpensive solar cookers in rural India, and document the reductions in carbon dioxide and soot emissions. The byproducts of biofuel cooking and biomass burning are significant contributors to global warming, and the expanded use of renewable energy is expected to decrease their effects.
Further studies by Ramanathan and fellow researchers highlighted the effects of growing levels of black carbon, sulfates, ozone and other pollutants emitted by cities, industry, and agriculture – termed the ‘brown cloud’ – which warm the atmosphere by absorbing sunlight, and are contributing in particular to the accelerated melting of Himalayan glaciers.
Brown clouds can also disturb tropical rainfall and regional circulation patterns such as the South Asian monsoon and reduce agriculture yields, potentially affecting over a billion people on the subcontinent.
Ramanathan’s research underlined that cutting emissions of black carbon, methane, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and other substances collectively known as short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), with life times of a decade or less, along with mitigation of CO2 emissions, can reduce the rate of warming by as much as half in the coming decades.
The Champions of the Earth prize is awarded annually to leaders from government, civil society and the private sector, whose actions have had a significant and positive impact on the environment. It is organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
“I am very honoured to accept this prestigious award, which recognizes the critical role of science and research in addressing the major environmental challenges of our time,” said Prof. Ramanathan.
“Policymakers across the world are realizing that through cost-effective actions such as reducing methane emissions from natural gas and oil production, and capturing from waste dumps, or phasing out products HFCs, major reductions in short-lived climate pollutants can be achieved, with significant add-on benefits for health and food security. As the science shows, fast action on black carbon, methane and HFCs – coupled with major cuts in carbon emissions – can make a critical contribution to achieving low carbon, resource-efficient, and inclusive development for all,” he added.
Ramanathan is an ISI highly cited researcher. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1995, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences awarded him the Buys Ballot Medal "... for outstanding scientific work in the science of atmosphere over the last decade or two." In 2002, he was awarded the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, "... for fundamental insights into the radiative roles of clouds, aerosols and key gases in the Earth's climate system." He was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2002 "... for fundamental contributions to our modern understanding of global climate change and human impacts on climate and environment"an Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 2004 and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2008.
Ramanathan, who was nominated in the Science and Innovation category, and his fellow 2013 Champions of the Earth laureates, will receive their awards at a special ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on 18 September 2013.
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