- Home
- About
- Leadership & Administration
- Chancellor's Lecture Series
Menu
- Leadership & Administration
- About Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco
- Chancellor's Cabinet Members
- Senior Leadership Team
- Chancellor's Staff
- Chancellor Event Request
- Chancellor Meeting Request
- Chancellor's Reports
- Campus Plans
- Faisal-Nichols Honorary Scholarship
- Strategic Plan
- Beacon Budget Model
- Chancellor's Lecture Series
- Beacon Wellness Initiative
- Restorative Justice Commission
- Mission
- Facts & Figures
- Accreditation & Rankings
- History of UMass Boston
- Student Consumer Information
From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience
“Impacts of Climate Change on Global Public Health”
With Dr. Vanessa Kerry
How is climate change impacting health at home and around the globe?
Join us for an in-depth discussion with physician and climate advocate Dr. Vanessa Kerry, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Seed Global Health and Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health for the World Health Organization for the second forum in the Chancellor’s Lecture Series:
From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience
“Impacts of Climate Change on Global Public Health”
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Campus Center Ballroom, UMass Boston
Lecture and Discussion, 12-1 p.m.
If you have questions, please contact: Allison.Novelly@umb.edu.
If you are unable to attend the event in person, you are welcome to join via YouTube.
Past Lectures
Bending the Curve and Bouncing Back to Climate Resilience
“Bending the Curve and Bouncing Back to Climate Resilience”
by
Dr. Ram Ramanathan
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Climate Sustainability at Scripps Institution of Oceanography
&
Climate Solutions Scholar, Cornell University
November 9, 2023
Campus Center, Campus Ballroom, University of Massachusetts Boston
Reception, 2:30–2:45 p.m.
Lecture and Discussion, 2:45–4:30 p.m.
Chancellor's Lecture Series Program
Climate change morphed into climate crisis this year, giving us a peek into a world that is warmer by 1.5°C. The rise in temperature will cross the 1.5°C threshold by the early 2030s and will most likely get worse for at least another few decades, even assuming the most optimistic solutions for bending the emissions curve.
A new trans-disciplinary approach is needed to make people and ecosystems resilient to climate stress. The new approach, developed in partnership with the Vatican's science academies, is built on three pillars: mitigation, adaptation, and societal transformation. The approach will be field- tested in partnership with mayors and governors from around the world, who will be convened at the Vatican in a summit. Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco and Dr. Ramanathan are co-leading this effort on behalf of the Vatican science academies.
Climate change is upon us already. Left unchecked, it will become the existential challenge of our times. The planet is likely to cross the dangerous threshold of 1.5C warming in less than a decade – when climate change will move into our living rooms like COVID. Going from climate crisis to climate resiliency in ten years will require an approach that will include both intergovernmental collaborations (to bend the emissions curve) and transdisciplinary collaborations (starting at the local city level) to enable citizens and ecosystems to become climate resilient. In this lecture, Professor Ramanathan will share a framework for such an approach to this existential challenge.
Biography
Since the 1970s, Veerabhadran Ramanathan’s groundbreaking work in the fields of atmospheric and climate sciences has brought crucial information to light. His first major contribution to the world of climate science occurred in the mid-70s, when he discovered the greenhouse effects of CFCs and other trace gases. Up until that point, it was widely accepted that carbon dioxide was the only gas responsible for the effects of global warming. He also contributed to the early development of global circulation models and the detecting and attribution of climate change. He has also lent his expertise to projects that changed the fabric of climate change research, such as the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) and the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE).
Described as “The Pope’s climate scientist” due to his close relationship with Pope Francis, Dr. Ramanathan assisted with the creation of Laudato Si’, the Pope's encyclical on climate change, which carries the subtitle “on care for our common home.”
He has received several national and international recognitions, including being named a thought leader by Foreign Policy in 2014, and the Tang Laureate for sustainability science in 2018. He is a climate solutions scholar at Cornell University, a council member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a member of the U.S. National Academy and the Royal Swedish Academy, and a United Nations Champion of Earth.
Ramanathan holds a BE from Annamalai University, an MSc in engineering science from the India Institute of Science, and a PhD in planetary atmospheres from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Sample publications:
- “Greenhouse Effect Due to Chlorofluorocarbons: Climatic Implications,” Science, 1975.
- “Opinion: Climate change isn’t just about emissions. We’re ignoring a huge part of the fight,” LA Times, October 15, 2023.