Veerabhadran Ramanathan Distinguished Professor of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego

Veerabhadran Ramanathan is a Distinguished Professor of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego. He discovered the greenhouse effect of Choloro-fluoro-carbons in 1975. His other discoveries include the global cooling effect of clouds, the prediction in 1980 that global warming will be detected by 2000, the widespread atmospheric brown clouds over S. Asia, the large global dimming effect of air pollution and the large effects of black carbon on regional and global climate. He was one of the first to propose that short-lived climate pollutants should be targeted to reduce climate change immediately. His research has resulted in major policy actions by the United Nations which named him as the Champion of Earth in 2013. He advises world leaders including Pope Francis, Governor Jerry Brown and head of UNEP on climate change and on protecting the poorest three billion from climate change. He represented Vatican in the 2015 and 2016 in UN Climate negotiations as a council member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He has been elected the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (www.ramanathan.ucsd.edu).

Abstract: Unchecked Climate Change, Mass Migration and Sustainability