Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a distinguished professor of climate and atmospheric sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, whose landmark research showed that cutting emissions of black carbon and other short-lived climate pollutants can significantly lessen the impacts of regional and global climate change, improve the health of millions of rural poor, and avoid crop losses, will receive a 2013 Champions of the Earth award, the United Nations’ highest environmental accolade, according to a UC San Diego press release.

The Champions of the Earth prize is awarded annually to leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector, whose actions have had a significant and positive impact on the environment. Organized by the United Nations Environment Programme, Ramanathan was nominated in the Science and Innovation category.

“I am very honored to accept this prestigious award, which recognizes the critical role of science and research in addressing the major environmental challenges of our time,” said Ramanathan. “Policymakers across the world are realizing that through cost-effective actions such as reducing methane emissions from natural gas and oil production, and capturing emissions from waste dumps, or phasing out products using hydroflurocarbons, or HFCs, major reductions in short-lived climate pollutants can be achieved, with significant add-on benefits for health and food security. As the science shows, fast action on black carbon, methane and HFCs – coupled with major cuts in carbon emissions – can make a critical contribution to achieving low carbon, resource-efficient, and inclusive development for all,” the Indian American professor added.

“We are proud that Prof. Ramanathan is being acknowledged for his science and for his humanitarian efforts, ensuring that research is translated into public policy,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla.

Ramanathan, who also serves as UNESCO professor of climate and policy at The Energy and Resources Institute University in New Delhi, India, co-led an international research team that in 1997 first discovered the climate impact in Asia of widespread air pollution, known as the atmospheric brown cloud.

Further studies by Ramanathan and fellow researchers highlighted the effects of growing levels of soot and other forms of black carbon, sulfates, ozone, and other pollutants emitted by cities, industry, and agriculture – termed the ‘brown cloud’ – which warm the atmosphere by absorbing sunlight, and are contributing in particular to the accelerated melting of Himalayan glaciers.

Brown clouds can also disturb tropical rainfall and regional circulation patterns such as the South Asian monsoon and reduce agriculture yields, potentially affecting over a billion people on the subcontinent.

Ramanathan’s research underlines the idea that cutting emissions of black carbon, methane, hydrofluorocarbons, and other substances collectively known as short-lived climate pollutants, with lifetimes of a decade or less, along with mitigation of CO2 emissions, can reduce the rate of warming by as much as half in the coming decades.

Ramanathan has also translated his research into action, by establishing a project, known as Project Surya, in India to phase out inefficient cookstoves in collaboration with The Energy Resources Institute and Nexleaf Analytics.

Inefficient cookstoves – used by some 500 million families in developing countries – are responsible for an estimated 25 percent of all black carbon emissions. Some 3.1 million premature deaths – especially among women and girls – are also caused by inhalation of indoor smoke from cookstoves.

Source: IndiaWest

US President Barack Obama has nominated yet another Indian-American, Indira Talwani, to the key post of U.S. District Court judge in Massachusetts.

Talwani is the third South Asian nominee by Obama, after Vince Chhabria and Manish Shah, both awaiting confirmation. Once confirmed, she would be the first South Asian justice in the First Circuit.

Talwani, currently, is a partner at Segal Roitman LLP in Boston, where she focuses her practise on civil litigation at the state and federal trial court and appellate levels.

“These individuals have demonstrated the talent, expertise, and fair-mindedness Americans expect and deserve from their judicial system,” Obama said.

“I am grateful for their willingness to serve and confident that they will apply the law with the utmost impartiality and integrity,” the said in a statement.

Earlier, Obama had nominated Vince Chhabria for the post of U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California and Manish Shah to that of District Court judge for the Northern District of Illinois, President’s home state.

“Indi is a committed attorney with an exceptional record. She is admired by her peers. We are extremely excited that another deserving South Asian has been nominated to the judiciary,” president of North American South Asian Bar Association, Nadeem Bezar, said on Talwani’s nomination.

Prior to joining Segal Roitman LLP in 1999, Talwani was a partner at the San Francisco law firm now known as Altshuler Berzon LLP from 1996 to 1999 and an associate at that firm from 1989 to 1995.

She began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge Stanley A. Weigel of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 1988 to 1989.

Source: Business Standard

State and federal law enforcement authorities in New York City are investigating an alleged hate crime that left an Indian American Columbia University assistant professor hospitalized.

Dr. Prabhjot Singh, who wears a turban and beard in adherence to his Sikh faith, says he was walking in Harlem on the evening of Sept. 21 when a large group of teenagers shouted “get Osama” and “terrorist” as they surrounded him on bicycles and then attacked him.

Singh and members of Columbia University SEWA, The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Sikh Coalition, and other members of the greater New York City community planned to hold a press conference to discuss the implications of this incident and how the community can move forward.

“There were about 20 of them,” Singh, who is an assistant professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, stated in a press release. “A few surrounded me, started punching me and pulling my beard.”

The attack occurred near 110th St. and Lennox Ave. Shortly after the incident, a Muslim woman was attacked a few blocks away. There were several witnesses to both incidents.

An ambulance took Singh to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he also works as a resident physician. Singh was hospitalized with displaced teeth, severe bruising and swelling, a small puncture in his elbow, and a possible fracture in his lower jaw.

“This is a tremendous blow not just to Prabhjot and Sikh Americans but to the ideals, we believe, of all New Yorkers,” said Amardeep Singh, program director of the Sikh Coalition. “What happened did not happen in a vacuum. Here in New York City we regularly receive reports that Sikh school children are called ‘Bin Laden’ or ‘terrorist’ by classmates and sometimes endure physical violence.”

The incident comes less than two weeks after the first-ever nationwide public perception assessment of Sikh Americans, titled “Turban Myths,” showed that 70 percent of Americans misidentify turban-wearers in the United States as Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Shinto.

The study also showed that nearly half of Americans believe “Sikh” is a sect of Islam, and more associate the turban with Osama bin Laden than with named Muslim and Sikh alternatives. The study was conducted by Stanford University researchers and sponsored by SALDEF.

“Unfortunately, our research confirms that Prabhjot’s experience is not the result of isolated misperception and intolerance,” said Jasjit Singh, SALDEF’s executive director. “Here you have a practicing doctor, a teacher and a community servant falling victim to hate in the largest and proudest melting pot in America. This violence is an affront to all Americans’ core values.”

The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force and Columbia University’s Department of Public Safety are investigating the assault.

Source: IndiaWest