The Atmosphere, Prisoner In A Glass Of Whisky

Claude Lorius is the man who discovered the atmosphere's history thanks to a glass of whisky!

Claude Lorius, one of the first scientists to understand the global warming was bound to the increase of greenhouse gases. The way he made this discovery remains mythical!

1965: Claude Lorius returns of a drilling to the base “Dumont d’ Urville”, situated on the island of Petrels, in Terre-Adélie. He takes a glass of whisky with his friends but he used to drinking it with ice. So, he decides to put a piece of glacial carrot taken earlier in his drillings! But this 15,000-year-old ice cube melts in its glass in a particular way: air bubbles escape by sparkling. It is the revelation! The brilliant scientist has the intuition that this gas could contain information allowing to reconstitute the past atmosphere.

It is only in 1980 when the first measures of greenhouse gases in the carrots of ice take place, but Claude Lorius had seen just: the human activities have a real impact on the global warming. So, even if this pioneering glaciologist would certainly have made this discovery later, we can say with a touch of humor that Claude Lorius is the man who discovered the atmosphere’s history thanks to a glass of whisky!

The glaciologist is the hero of Ice and the Sky, last movie of the French Producer Luc Jacquet.

Source: http://waterstories.nestle-waters.com/environment/the-atmosphere-prisoner-in-a-glass-of-whisky/