N°30 I quarterly I july 2013 Profile | 17 the CNRS glaciology laboratory in Grenoble, which marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the Saclay and Grenoble teams. Great strides were made in the analysis of ice core samples over that period. Based on the presence of oxygen and deuterium isotopes, researchers are now able to infer the temperature prevailing when snowfalls built up over the years to form the ice caps of Greenland and Antarctica. In addition, by analyzing the air bubbles trapped in the ice, they can determine the CO2 and methane levels in the atmosphere at a given period. The ice cores therefore also yielded extraordinary data on past climates. Jouzel was a pioneer in deciphering that information. When France launched its first Antarctic drilling project in 1978, he was on the team that analyzed the ice samples. The cores were taken at Dome C, the site of the French-Italian station Concordia since 2005. Though having only been to Antarctica on one occasion, Jouzel has often roamed the icy landscapes of Greenland, and travels regularly to Siberia as part of a collaboration with a Russian team. A DREAM JOB Jouzel is still based in Saclay, where he has served as research director since 1995. “But I’m also active as a simple researcher,” he adds. This is his dream job. “When I was a little boy, I heard about the CEA in Saclay on the radio,” the softspoken scientist recounts. “I told myself that I would work there when I grew up.” And indeed, that was where this farmer’s son from Brittany went in 1968 to begin work on his dissertation, under the mentorship of physicist Etienne Roth. He started “in a laboratory that supervised the production of heavy water for use in the nuclear reactors of the time. Our job was to measure, using mass spectrometry, its concentration of deuterium, a heavy hydrogen isotope. Roth had a very inquisitive mind—he was keenly interested in the levels of deuterium found in nature, in plants and precipitation: the water contains a record of its own history.” DEFENDING THE BLUE PLANET Jouzel is now using his expertise in past climate history to ring the alarm bells on the dangers of inaction in the face of global warming. “Urgent action is needed to preserve the planet,” he warns. Last year, he received the Climate Change Prize from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, “for helping draw public attention to the issue of global warming.” A subject he is familiar with: Jouzel served eight years as director of the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace,3 which developed one of France’s two climate forecast models. Since 1994, he has also been a member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “It is our duty to inform, either through conferences and the media, or by backing politicians who negotiate agreements on climate issues at the UN,” he emphasizes. His commitment was rewarded by the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with the IPCC and former US vice-president Al Gore. After participating in France’s Grenelle Environment Roundtable the same year, Jouzel became a member of the country’s Economic, Social and Environmental Council in 2010. He is also on the steering committee for the National Debate on Energy Transition, which is expected to pave the way for draft legislation in a few months. “The press has not picked up on the debate and most people don’t even want to hear about it,” he says. “But the next UN report, expected this autumn, will confirm the extent of global warming. We must do our best to rapidly move toward a carbon-responsible society, even though, sadly, we do not seem to be on the right track.” 01. Ecole supérieure de chimie industrielle de Lyon. 02. Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l’environnement (CNRS / CEA / UVSQ). 03. CNRS / UPMC / UVSQ / CEA / IRD / CNES / ENS / École Polytechnique. Contact i nformation: LSCE , Gif-sur-Yvette. Jean Jouzel > jean.jouzel@lsce.ipsl.fr .hea vy wate r. Water whose hydrogen atoms are heavier isotopes than those found in normal water. “We must do our best to rapidly move toward a carbonresponsible society...” 5 key dates 1947 B orn in Janzé (France) 1994 N amed expert member of the IPCC , where he has been Vice-Chair of the scientific group since 2002 2002 CNRS Gold Medal 2007 C o-laureate, with the IPCC and Al Gore, of the Nobel Peace Prize 2012 Recipient of the Vetlesen Prize
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