India, Feb. 6 -- This is part of an extensive interview conducted days after Veerabhadran Ramanathan, 81, won the Crafoord Prize (in Geosciences), often considered a precursor to the Nobel.

It was Ramanathan who discovered, in the 1970s, that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), common refrigerants at that time, were in fact potent greenhouse gases.

For half a century, his work has shaped our understanding of how climate works. His research has formed the basis of international agreements. He has advised four popes on climate change. Here's more from the interview.

* In 1980, you published a seminal paper on warming.

Science has three parts. The first is asking what's happening out there. We observe that CFCs and CO2 are rising, and temperatur...