India, Feb. 6 -- Veerabhadran Ramanathan, 81, has just won the Crafoord Prize (in Geosciences), often considered a precursor to the Nobel.

He discovered that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), common refrigerants at that time, were, in fact, potent greenhouse gases. While working at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA's) Langley Research Center in the 1970s, the young man from a village in Tamil Nadu discovered that one tonne of a CFC could have the same warming effect as up to 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. His findings made the front page of The New York Times.

For half a century, his work has added important nuances to our understanding of how climate works. His research has formed the basis of international agreeme...