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Claude Allègre

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Claude Allègre
Claude Allègre in 2009
Minister of National Education
In office
4 June 1997 – 28 March 2000
PresidentJacques Chirac
Prime MinisterLionel Jospin
Preceded byFrançois Bayrou
Succeeded byJack Lang
Personal details
Born
Claude Jean Allègre

(1937-03-31)31 March 1937
Paris, France
Died4 January 2025(2025-01-04) (aged 87)
Paris, France
Political partyPS (1973–2008)
EducationLycée Charlemagne

Claude Allègre (French pronunciation: [klod aˈlɛɡʁ]; 31 March 1937 – 4 January 2025) was a French politician and scientist. His work in the field of isotope geochemistry was recognised with the award of many senior medals, including the Crafoord Prize for geosciences in 1986 and the William Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union in 1995. His political service included a three-year term as Minister of Education in France, from 1997 to 2000.

Early life

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Allègre was born in Paris in 1937, and was the eldest of four children. His father was a professor of natural sciences, and his mother was a school headteacher. Allègre's family was from the Herault region of France.[1]

Background and scientific work

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Allègre's main area of research was in geochemistry.[2] He started work in this field for his doctoral research, where he focussed on ways of dating rocks using isotope geochemistry; specifically radiometric dating.[3] After realising that there was no laboratory in France where he could make measurements with the accuracy he was seeking, Allègre received a NATO grant and spent the summer of 1965 working at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Here, Allègre began working with Jerry Wasserburg, and learned the techniques required for rubidium-strontium dating of rocks by mass spectrometry. Allègre returned to France, and over the next three years built a laboratory and began making isotopic measurements. In 1968, he took up a position at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), where he then spent most of his scientific career.[3]

Over the next thirty years, Allègre and his research students, post-doctoral researchers and collaborators developed techniques that meant they were able to measure isotope abundances in rocks and minerals by mass spectrometry that set new standards of sensitivity and precision. This allowed Allègre and his team to develop new ideas about the age and chemical evolution of the outer parts of the Earth, and also provide new information and insight into the early history of the solar system, by dating meteorites.[4] Allègre defined the new field of 'chemical geodynamics'. This combined data from isotope geochemistry with constraints from geophysics to develop ideas about the long-term chemical evolution of the planet, from core-formation to crustal growth.[5]

Allègre's work had a substantial impact on the field of geochemistry, in particular, for which he received numerous awards including election to national academies, including the US National Academy of Sciences in 1985,[6] and the Royal Society in 2002.[7] He was also awarded senior medals for his work, from the Geochemical Society (Goldschmidt award, 1986) and the American Geophysical Union (Bowie medal, in 1995).[8] In 1986, he was jointly awarded the Crafoord Prize with Wasserburg, in recognition of their 'pioneering work in isotope geology'.[9]

Scientific works

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Over the course of his career, Allègre published many scientific papers. He also authored a number of scientific monographs and textbooks, including:

  • Introduction to geochemistry (1974).[10]
  • Trace elements in igneous petrology : a volume in memory of Paul W. Gast (1978)[11]
  • From stone to star : a view of modern geology (1992)[12]
  • Isotope geology (2008) [13]

Scientific controversies

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In 1976, Allègre and volcanologist Haroun Tazieff became involved in an intense and public quarrel about whether inhabitants should evacuate the areas surrounding the la Soufrière volcano on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, which had begun to show signs of unrest, including steam explosions.[14] Allègre 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 eruptive crisis did not result in any damage. 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.[15]

Political career

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A one time member of the French Socialist Party, Allègre is better known to the general public for his political responsibilities, which included 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 critiques against teaching personnel, as well as his reforms, made him increasingly unpopular in the teaching world.[16][17] 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."[18]

In the run-up to the 2007 French presidential election, 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. When Chevènement decided not to run, he publicly declined to support Royal's bid for the presidency, citing differences over nuclear energy, GMOs and stem-cell research. He later became close to conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy.[19]

Views on global warming

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Allègre stated 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".[20]

In an article entitled "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" in L'Express, a French weekly, Allègre cited evidence that Antarctica's gaining ice and that Mount Kilimanjaro's retreating snow caps, among other global-warming concerns, can come from natural causes. He said that "[t]he cause of this climate change is unknown".[21]

Allègre 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!"[22]

In 2009, when it was suggested that Claude Allègre might be offered a position as minister in President 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, 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 to those scientists. [...] [It] would be a tragic signal, six months before the Copenhagen Conference, and something incomprehensible coming from France, which has been a leading country for years in the fight against climate change!"[23]

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".[24][25] Allègre described the petition as "useless and stupid".[26]

Later life and death

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Allègre suffered a heart attack while at a scientific conference in Chile in 2013. He was hospitalised, but recovered.[27] He died in Paris on 4 January 2025, at the age of 87.[28]

Awards and honors

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bris, Isabelle (4 January 2025). "Disparition : Claude Allègre, héraultais et ancien ministre de l'Éducation nationale, est mort à 87 ans" – via franceinfo.
  2. ^ "Geochemical Fellows". Geochemical Society. 2015. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  3. ^ a b Allègre, Claude (1987). "Acceptance speech for the V. M. Goldschmidt award". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 51: 1773–1774. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(87)90356-5.
  4. ^ "Professor Claude Allegre ForMemRS" – via Royal Society.
  5. ^ Tilton, G.R. (1987). "Introduction of Claude Allègre for the V. M. Goldschmidt Award 1986". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 51: 1771–1772. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(87)90355-3.
  6. ^ "Claude J. Allègre". nasonline.org – via National Academy of Sciences.
  7. ^ Curtis, Polly (May 13, 2002). "Society defends its scientific decision" – via The Guardian.
  8. ^ Anderson, Don L. (1995). "Allegre receives the William Bowie Medal". EOS Transactions, American Geophysical Union. 72: 535.
  9. ^ "The Crafoord Prize 1986". 1 June 1986 – via The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
  10. ^ Allègre, C.J.; Michard, G. (December 1974). Introduction to Geochemistry. Springer Netherlands. ISBN 9789027704986.
  11. ^ Allègre, C.J.; Hart, S.R. (1985). Trace elements in igneous petrology : a volume in memory of Paul W. Gast. Developments in petrology. Vol. 5. Elsevier. pp. 1–272. ISBN 0444416587.
  12. ^ Allègre, C.J. (1992). From stone to star : a view of modern geology. Harvard University Press. p. 287. ISBN 0674838661.
  13. ^ Allègre, C.J. Isotope Geology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780511809323.
  14. ^ "La Recherche, France: La Soufriére's first victim". Nature. 264: 500. 1976.
  15. ^ Beauducel, F. (August 2006). "À propos de la polémique" [About the Controversy]. Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (in French). Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  16. ^ Lisa K. Menéndez Weidman (2001). "Policy Trends and Structural Divergence in Educational Governance: The Case of the French National Ministry and US Department of Education". Oxford Review of Education. 27 (1): 75–84 – via JSTOR.
  17. ^ Guiney, M. Martin (2012). "The Literature Problem in the "Lycée": French Education Debates Today". The French Review. 85 (4): 642–655 – via JSTOR.
  18. ^ Schapira, P (1997). "Defense of the conceptual". The Mathematical Intelligencer. 19: 7–8.
  19. ^ https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/l-info-de-france-inter/l-info-de-france-inter-2506089
  20. ^ C. Allègre : 12 Clés pour la géologie, Belin/France Culture, 1987. Original quote in French : En brûlant des combustibles fossiles, l’homme a augmenté le taux de gaz carbonique dans l’atmosphère, ce qui fait, par exemple, que depuis un siècle la température moyenne du globe a augmenté d’un demi-degré.; also quoted in (in French) Le Monde, October, 3 2006.
  21. ^ Neiges du Kilimandjaro – La cause de la modification climatique reste inconnue. Donc, prudence Archived 2008-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, L'Express, 2006
  22. ^ "US Senate Environmental & Public Works Committee". Archived from the original on November 14, 2006. Retrieved November 14, 2006.
  23. ^ "Pour Nicolas Hulot, Claude Allègre au gouvernement 'serait un signal tragique". AFP. May 24, 2009. Archived from the original on May 29, 2009.
  24. ^ "Håkan Grudd's statement on Libération.fr (March 2010)".
  25. ^ "Plus de 400 climatologues en appellent à la ministre". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 2016-11-10.
  26. ^ Enserink, Martin (9 April 2010). "Scientists Ask Minister to Disavow Predecessor's Book". Science. 328 (5975). Paris: 151. doi:10.1126/science.328.5975.151. PMID 20378780. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  27. ^ "Claude Allègre hospitalisé au Chili après un infarctus". January 19, 2013 – via Le Monde.
  28. ^ "Claude Allègre, ancien ministre de l'Éducation nationale, est décédé". Le Figaro (in French). Retrieved 4 January 2025.
  29. ^ "Allegre, Claude J." National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  30. ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  31. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-04-01.
  32. ^ "Médailles d'or". Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (in French). Archived from the original on 2011-01-20. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  33. ^ "MEDALLISTS". European Union of Geosciences. Retrieved 30 April 2020.

Sources

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Political offices
Preceded by Minister of Education
1997–2000 		Succeeded by
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