Claude Allègre back in French government? - May 28, 2009
Posted for Declan Butler
Strong rumours abound inside the Parisian Beltway that French president Nicolas Sarkozy is considering offering the former Socialist science minister, 72-year old maverick geophysicist and climate sceptic Claude Allègre, a ministerial post in his government -- possibly a ministry of industry and innovation. (Financial Times).
Allègre has the scientific credentials. He won the 1986 Crafoord Prize, awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for outstanding basic research in disciplines not covered by the Nobel prizes. He also headed the Institut de Physique de Globe in Paris from 1976 to 1986, and was president of the French geological survey — the Bureau des Recherches Géologiques et Minières — from 1992 until 1997, as well as being a member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1994.
But when Allègre, a former prominent Socialist, was minister for science and higher education in Lionel Jospin’s government from 1997 to 2000 he probably broke all records for unpopularity of a French science minister. He described the education system as a fat "mammoth" in need of slimming, and said that the trade unions were "chloroformed". In 1998, Nature called for Jospin to fire Allègre unless he changed his ways – which Jospin finally did in 2000. Since then Allègre has divorced himself further from many French scientists with his views that carbon dioxide is not the main cause of global warming. (see Real Climate here and here)
On 26 May, Allègre denounced what he described as the "lies and affabulations" of criticisms by his opponents surrounding his eventual nomination to government. One criticism echoed by the newspaper Le Monde came from ecologist Nicolas Hulot, a popular TV environmentalist, journalist and writer. Hulot stated that if Allègre was nominated to government "it would be giving the bras d'honneur to the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." It would be a "tragic signal six months before the Copenhagen conference, and an incomprehensible move coming from France which has for years been a country that has been an engine in the combat against climate change," added Hulot.
Alain Juppé, a former prime minister and foreign minister of the centre right party also criticized the possible nomination of Allègre to government given his minority views on climate change. In the newspaper Libération, Jean Jouzel, vice president of the IPCC, said Allègre was free to have his opinions, but questioned his "erroneous vision," and asked what policies an innovation ministry under Allègre might have given that "the reality of climate change must irrigate several crucial and radical choices with respect to industry and new technologies."
Allègre has responded to such criticisms by saying that he recognizes the reality of climate change but had doubts as to its causes "given that the climate is a complex phenomenom," and was worried that the challenges facing the planet might lead to decreases in economic growth and threaten the free market. Questioned by the newspaper Le Monde, Allègre said: "I've nothing to say. I'm in my lab writing a scientific article," describing the current controversy as nothing more than "agitation." "We are not in the Soviet Union," he added with respect to his opinions on climate change, "we can contest a scientific thesis."
Comments
All evidence clearly shows that the human contribution to climate change is not significant. Hence, efforts to control the emission of greenhouse gases like CO2 are pointless – and very costly. For details see the NIPCC summary report “Nature – Not Human Activity – Rules the Climate” http://www.sepp.org/publications/NIPCC_final.pdf
The full NIPCC report is also available in print: Craig Idso and S. Fred Singer, Climate Change Reconsidered: The 2009 Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, Chicago, IL: Heartland Institute, 2009.
http://www.heartland.org/publications/NIPCC%20report
Posted by: S. Fred Singer | May 29, 2009 02:31 AM
One can hope that Sarkozy will take this bold step in the right direction. For too long now our elected leaders have been steered in their environmental policy decisions by the combined forces of religious fanaticism and less-than-truthful science. The Allègre's nomination would send a strong signal to the world that the scientific method is still alive and well in the Western world.
Posted by: John DeFayette | May 30, 2009 09:38 AM
"Climate sceptic"? Does that mean he doesn't believe there's such a thing as "climate"?
Posted by: iolanach | May 31, 2009 09:51 PM
Congratulations to Claude Allegre for "contesting a scientific thesis" that in fact has little scientific evidence to back it up. There is little evidence to suggest that climate change is being caused by carbon dioxide, and in fact the same UN group held up as experts, twenty years ago were saying global climate change was caused by a "hole in the ozone layer". After getting rid of CFC's the weather is still abnormal, but it did hurt a number of countries' chemical companies. Now the same arguments are being raised about CO2. Nations such as the U.S. which have seen significant drops in CO2 levels due to anti pollution measures since the 1970's, are being pressured to cut "emissions" and industrial production and to let foreign countries, particularly Japan and Germany use what their governments call "cap and trade credits" to take over other the U.S.'s and other country's energy companies, gaining economically by all these measures. Japan and Germany are also doing lots of foreign direct investment in areas which have been hard hit by this severe and extremely abnormal weather. The capabilities for weather modification to be used for military purposes has been acknowledged since the 1970's when there was a UN resolution prohibiting it. However, that does appear given the massive unnatural abnormality of the weather as likely a source for this massively unnatural weather as carbon dioxide. You can check out some information on this "contrasting thesis" as to the cause of the abnormal weather at "www.weathermodification-weatherwar.com". We have had carbon dioxide in our atmosphere for a long time. We have never had this abnormal weather.
Posted by: Elaine Cullen | September 27, 2009 06:15 PM