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, 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". 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 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!" 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 for geology along with Gerald J. Wasserburg, (1986) Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, (1987) Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London, (1987) Member of the American Philosophical Society (1992) Gold Medal of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, (1994) French Academy of Sciences, (1995) William Bowie Medal, (1995) Arthur Holmes Medal, (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 Canada National Post Article — Allegre's second thoughts 1937 births Living people Politicians