This is just the start of an article on the talk by Prof. V. Ram Ramanathan at Earth System Science at UC Irvine on Oct. 29, 2019. The talk was titled “Bending the Curve: Overarching Solutions for a rapidly warming planet.” Bending the curve means to reduce greenhouse gases.
We provide a link to the same talk that he gave at Stockholm University:
We will also link to the many reports and key articles that he has worked on.
A short summary of his main points starts with the need for considerable action within the next decade. The goals are the usual, to reduce CO2, methane, and all other greenhouse gases. He also stresses conversion to renewables.
He urges climate scientists, faculty, students, and all concerned to talk about the importance of climate action. This includes to family, friends, neighbors and others. He also urges talking to religious groups. He is a member of the Vatican science advisory group. He was the science advisor for Pope Francis’ delegation to the 2015 Paris climate summit. In 2013, he was named the Champion of Earth by the United Nations.
I agree with the religious groups, because they are strong sources of moral, humanitarian, and practical authority. They are often the strongest social and community organizations. In the US, the Bible Belt or South is the most vulnerable to floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and river flooding. The Plain States and Midwest are also farming states and crucially dependent on weather and climate changes with rain and drought.
As I am typing this, I am watching air drops protecting the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library from wildfires in Simi Valley. California is experiencing more wildfires and more extensive and damaging fires. This is also causing electrical power to be cut off to millions since the power lines are sources of sparking. This effect will have to be included in future power source locations. Yesterday, the Getty Museum complex and a Catholic School were threatened in the Sepulveda Pass north of the LA basin.
Humidity is low, and California has experienced little rain, and none in Southern California, and it is already Halloween, the end of October. They are predicting winds for Irvine this afternoon. Classes at UCLA had been closed yesterday, I think I heard.
Prof. Ramanathan is the Edward A. Friedman Endowed Presidential Chair in Climate Sustainability at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. He is also the discoverer that CFCs and halocarbons were powerful greenhouse gases. Halocarbons were roughly 10,000 times more powerful per unit than CO2. They combinations of Chlorine or Flourine with Carbon, replacing Hydrogen as in methane.
