A.R. Ravishankara

How do you get across that point that something you do today is going to affect somebody farther down the road?

—A.R. Ravishankara

The Complexities of Thinking in the Long Term

Predictions of how our present actions will affect the future might be uncertain, but that uncertainty and those actions should be part of the conversation, says A.R. Ravishankara. 

A. R. Ravishankara is the director of the Chemical Sciences Division at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. What do we know about the chemistry of the atmosphere today? What knowledge does the future hold? How are climate change and air quality related? Ravishankara’s work has been dedicated to these questions. 

The Human Element of Climate Change

We know change when we see it, but climate change is largely invisible. A.R. Ravishankara discusses how we might be able to relate to an abstracted idea. 

To gain answers he has focused on several topics, including gas-phase chemistry, heterogeneous (or multiple-phase) chemistry, and photochemistry, which is of vital importance because the atmosphere is driven by solar radiation. From his role in the 1987 expedition to Antarctica to gather data about the growing hole in the ozone layer to his cochair position on the Scientific Assessment Panel for the Montreal Protocol, Ravishankara has been a driving force behind the growing knowledge we have about our changing atmosphere. His most recent work has focused on nitrous oxide’s role as an ozone-depleting substance.

Thinking in Images

Science can seem trapped in the lab. The medium of art can help make science into a beautiful, sensory experience.

Going beyond the Graph

Reason and logic happen creatively. Visualizations let us represent what words can't quite capture.