Claude Allègre

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Claude (Jean) Allègre (born March 31, 1937) is a French politician and former geochemist.

1 Scientific work
2 Political career
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Scientific work

Claude Allègre is working at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (Paris Institute for the Physics of the Globe).

His important scientific work on geochemistry won him:

the Crafoord Prize for geology,
the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London,
the Golden Medal of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

He is a member of:

French Academy of Sciences, elected member on November 6, 1995.
United States National Academy of Sciences (foreign associate)

In 1976, Allègre and Haroun Tazieff had an intense, public quarrel about whether inhabitants should evacuate the surroundings of the erupting volcano la Soufrière.

Claude Allegre accused proponents of anthropogenic, catastrophic global warming of being motivated by money, commenting that “the ecology of helpless protesting has become a very lucrative business for some people!” ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Political career

A member of the French Socialist Party, Allegre 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 June 4, 1997 to March 2000, when he was replaced by Jack Lang. His frequent outpourings of allegations against teaching personnel, as well as his reforms, made him increasingly unpopular in the teaching world.