Claude Allègre (; born 31 March 1937) is a French
politician and
scientist.
Scientific work
The main scientific area of Claude Allègre was
geochemistry
Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the e ...
. Allègre co-authored an ''Introduction to geochemistry'' in 1974. Since the 1980s, he mainly publishes popular science and political books.
In 1976, Allègre and volcanologist
Haroun Tazieff started an intense and very public quarrel about whether inhabitants should evacuate the surroundings of the erupting ''
la Soufrière''
volcano in
Guadeloupe. Allègre, who was speaking outside his area of immediate expertise, held that inhabitants should be evacuated, while Tazieff held that the Soufrière was harmless because all analyses pointed to a purely
phreatic eruption with no sign of fresh
magma. In part out of caution, the authorities decided to follow Allègre's advice and evacuate. The eruption did not result in any damage, except for the very significant disruption caused by the evacuation itself. Allègre, as the director of ''
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris'', subsequently expelled Tazieff from that institute. The controversy dragged on for many years after the end of the eruption, and ended up in court.
Claude Allègre is an
ISI highly cited researcher.
He is retired and significantly diminished by a 2013
heart attack.
Political career
A former member of the
French Socialist Party, Allègre is better known to the general public for his past political responsibilities, which include serving as
Minister of Education of France in the
Jospin cabinet from 4 June 1997 to March 2000, when he was replaced by
Jack Lang. His outpourings of often unjustified critiques against teaching personnel, as well as his reforms, made him increasingly unpopular in the teaching world. In 1996, Allegre published La Défaite de Platon, ("The defeat of Plato"), described by mathematician
Pierre Schapira in the Spring 1997 edition of
Mathematical Intelligencer as "one of the most savage broadsides against conceptual thought (or just against thought?)"
In the run-up to the
2007 French presidential election
Presidential elections were held in France on 21 and 22 April 2007 to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France (and ''ex officio'' Co-Prince of Andorra) for a five-year term. As no candidate received a majority of the vote ...
, he endorsed Lionel Jospin, then
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, for the Socialist nomination, and finally sided with the ex-Socialist
Jean-Pierre Chevènement, against
Ségolène Royal
Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election.
Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 20 ...
. When Chevènement decided not to run, he publicly, and controversially, declined to support Royal's bid for the presidency, citing differences over
nuclear energy,
GMO
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...
s and
stem-cell research
In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of ...
. He later became close to conservative president
Nicolas Sarkozy.
Controversies
Global warming
Allègre states that the causes of climate change are unknown. This represents a change of mind, since he wrote in 1987 that "By burning fossil fuels, man increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which, for example, has raised the global mean temperature by half a degree in the last century".
In an article entitled "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" in ''
l'Express
''L'Express'' () is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''Réussir''.
History ...
'', a French weekly, Allègre cited evidence that Antarctica's gaining ice and that Kilimanjaro's retreating snow caps, among other global-warming concerns, can come from natural causes. He said that "
e cause of this climate change is unknown".
Allègre has accused those agreeing with the mainstream scientific view of
global warming of being motivated by money, saying that “the ecology of helpless protesting has become a very lucrative business for some people!” On the flip side, his ''
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris'' receives significant funding from the oil industry.
In 2009, when it was suggested that Claude Allègre might be offered a position as minister in
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Nicolas Sarkozy's government, TV presenter and environmental activist
Nicolas Hulot stated:
:''"He doesn't think the same as the 2,500 scientists of the
IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ...
, who are warning the world about a disaster; that's his right. But if he were to be recruited in government, it would become policy, and it would be a ''
bras d'honneur
A (), Iberian slap,, ; pt, manguito; ca, botifarra, . forearm jerk, Italian salute,, . or Kozakiewicz's gesture, or . is an obscene gesture that communicates moderate to extreme contempt, and is roughly equivalent in meaning to " fuck you", " ...
'' to those scientists.
.. twould be a tragic signal, six months before the
Copenhagen Conference
The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 and 18 December. The conference included the 15th session of the Conference of the Partie ...
, and something incomprehensible coming from France, which has been a leading country for years in the fight against climate change!"''
In a 2010 petition, more than 500 French researchers asked Science Minister
Valérie Pécresse to dismiss Allègre's book ''L’imposture climatique'', claiming the book was "full of factual mistakes, distortions of data, and plain lies". Allègre described the petition as "useless and stupid".
Awards and honors
* Foreign Associate of the
National Academy of Sciences (1985)
*
V. M. Goldschmidt Award, (1986)
*
Crafoord Prize
The Crafoord Prize is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord. The Prize is awarded in partnership between the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Crafoord Foun ...
for
geology along with
Gerald J. Wasserburg, (1986)
* Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
, (1987)
*
Wollaston Medal
The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.
The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831. It was originally made of gold (1831–1845), t ...
of the
Geological Society of London, (1987)
* Member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
(1992)
* Gold Medal of the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
, (1994)
*
French Academy of Sciences, (1995)
*
William Bowie Medal
The William Bowie Medal is awarded annually by the American Geophysical Union for "outstanding contributions to fundamental geophysics and for unselfish cooperation in research". The award is the highest honor given by the AGU and is named in honor ...
, (1995)
*
Arthur Holmes Medal
The Arthur Holmes Medal and Honorary Membership is one of the most prestigious awards of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The medal is awarded to scientists who have achieved exceptional international standing in solid Earth sciences for the ...
, (1995)
See also
*
Politics of France
References
* Cl.J. Allègre, G. Michard, R.N. Varney (1974), ''Introduction to Geochemistry'' (
Springer).
External links
Senate Article — Global Warming Skepticism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allegre, Claude Jean
1937 births
Living people
Politicians from Paris
Scientists from Paris
Socialist Party (France) politicians
French geochemists
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Foreign Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy
Wollaston Medal winners
French Ministers of National Education
Members of the American Philosophical Society