Dr. Claude Lorius

In 1957 Dr. Lorius started to Antarctica for the International Geophysical Year. Ice cores drilled during 22 field expeditions allowed to obtain both past temperatures and composition of the atmosphere over the last 800,000 years. A major achievement was the discovery of the link between climate and the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, at Vostok station, the coldest place on earth. At the time of the cold war American, Soviet and French scientists pointed out that current concentration of CO² due to human activities will lead to a significant warming of the planet.