Why Climate Scientists Got Physics Nobel !

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded jointly to three scientists — Syukuro Manabe of Princeton University, Klaus Hasselmann of Max Planck Institute of Meteorology, and Giorgio Parisi of Sapienza University of Rome. The Nobel Prize Committee said the Physics Prize this year was given for “groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex systems”. This is the first time climate scientists have been awarded the Physics Nobel.

The combined work of the three laureates has contributed to humanity’s understanding of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, the accelerating greenhouse effect, and cyclical patterns in natural phenomena (starling murmurations) and long-term climate phenomena (recurring ice ages). Climate change is the biggest crisis facing the world, and the humanity, today. Unfortunately, there still are some people, and governments, that are not convinced of the reality, although that is changing quickly. Apart from the fact that the recognition of Manabe and Hasselmann is richly deserved and long awaited, this Nobel Prize will, hopefully, also help in more people believing in climate science. This Nobel Prize would probably help in further mainstreaming of climate science. Earlier, Two Indian-origin scientists have received the Physics Nobel — C.V. Raman was the 1930 laureate for his work on the scattering of light (Raman effect), while Indian-American Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar won the 1983 Physics Nobel for stellar evolution.