As for the link between CO2 and warming, which must, according to Mr. Allègre, be proven and tested over time, I kindly remind him that this idea dates from 1896. It was put forward by a certain Svante Arrhenius, Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1903 ("On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature of the ground". Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, vol. 41, n ° 251, pp. 237-276.)
Claude Allègre would realize by reading this long article that Mr. Arrhenius was not much mistaken in predicting the effect of CO2 on temperature. Clearly, an idea from 1896 has been tested and confirmed by one hundred and ten years of measurements and calculations.
Is a decline of one hundred and ten years enough for Mr. Allègre? Or, on the grounds that there are still some imperfections in our understanding of such a complex phenomenon, should we wait another hundred and ten years for the Earth to explode?
Florent Domine is research director at CNRS
PS: Carbonic acid is a weak acid produced by the dissolution of CO2 in water
