VEERABHADRAN (RAM) RAMANATHAN
Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences and Edward A. Frieman Endowed Presidential Chair in Climate Sustainability at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at UC San Diego
Adjunct Professor, Department of Global Development at Cornell University
Advisor on Climate Change to Pope Francis
Ram is like a prophet. He has a unique story to tell. His earliest major accomplishment was discovering the greenhouse effect in chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in 1975. He showed that a ton of a CFC has more effect on global warming than 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Ram’s discovery led to legislation that swiftly eliminated CFCs from common products and reduced the problem immensely. The story of CFCs can be a foreshadowing of the future story of carbon dioxide.
Currently, Ram leads a University of California-wide undergraduate course educating students on how to pursue climate change solutions. The course, “Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions” began at UC San Diego and now is offered at five UC campuses. Plans to offer the course at all nine UC undergraduate campuses are underway.
“We need a bucket of solutions, not one magic bullet.”
Ram is simultaneously an advisor to Pope Francis, as he understands that religious leaders play an enormous role in getting people to address the urgency of climate disruption. The strategy that Ram used to garner the attention of the Pope was to frame climate change as a social justice issue. The poorest three billion people on earth will suffer the environmental consequences caused by the richest one billion. They didn’t cause the problem, and yet they will feel it most.
Ram praises the work of Mac and Stone Edge Farm,