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Using Milankovitch Cycles to create high-resolution astrochronologies

November 30, 2020

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AIM/MCRN Summer School: Week 6

August 2, 2020

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Professor Christopher K.R.T. Jones — Recipient of the 2020 MPE Prize


Professor Chris Jones is the Bill Guthridge Distinguished Professor in Mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Director of the Mathematics and Climate Research Network (MCRN). The 2020 MPE Prize recognizes Professor Jones for his many significant contributions to climate science and the mathematics of planet Earth.

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General

Psychologists analyzing the evolution of human societies might discuss and argue the following fact: It took approximately 40 years for the community of mathematicians to become aware of the various difficulties facing human society in the near future and to accept to work on these questions.

The time is ripe to tackle these problems. Several mathematical tools have been developed recently that can be applied successfully to predict environmental developments. In “ancient times,” rather simple differential equations could be used to make predictions, for example about the evolution of our physical resources. Progress in the theory of dynamical systems, analysis, and the theory of partial differential equations, and the availability of ever-increasing amounts of physical data enable us to work on problems arising from the transformation of our society.

At this point it is fair to pay homage to the modern Cassandra’s whose sensitivity and open-mindedness for the physical and human aspects of our society led them to draw the attention of their contemporaries to the ecological questions, the term ecological being taken in a wide sense. Physicists and mathematicians were the most popular of these Cassandra’s. Among them, a special tribute has to be given to two well known mathematicians, Alexandre Grothendieck and Pierre Samuel.

A partial history of their intellectual adventures, of their acts has been related in a memoir by Céline PESSIS, “Les années 1968 et la science Survivre … et Vivre, des mathématiciens critiques à l’origine de l’écologisme.” The book can be downloaded here. As the title suggests, the memoir is written in French. Since it is a rather basic French, I‘ll only give a very few quotations, expecting that everyone can guess their meaning.

The first quotation is from Grothendieck, the founder of Survivre:

“Survivre et Vivre” (qui s’appelait d’abord “Survivre” sans plus) est le nom d’un groupe, à vocation d’abord pacifiste, ensuite également écologique, qui a pris naissance en juillet 1970 (en marge d’une “Summer School” à l’Université de Montréal), dans un milieu de scientifiques (et surtout, de mathématiciens).” Has the Canadian group of which Grothendieck is speaking created a kind of tradition at the University of Montreal, which might explain the presence and role of Christiane Rousseau in the birth and development of “Mathematics of Planet Earth”?

According to Céline Plessis,
“Survivre nous a paru jouer un rôle majeur dans l’émergence du mouvement d’écologie politique8, comme semblaient l’indiquer les noms des personnalités qui s’y trouvaient réunies et notamment la présence de Pierre Samuel qui fut un acteur clé du mouvement antinucléaire et un des “piliers” des Amis de la Terre durant plusieurs décennies. …. (La section française des Friends of the Earth (Amis de la Terre) est créée la même semaine de juillet 1970 que Survivre).”

She observed that “Grothendieck et Samuel sont les membres de Survivre initialement les plus enclins à valoriser les scientifiques lanceurs d’alertes écologiques. Ils se portent caution, en 1972, pour la première publication des Amis de la Terre. Il s’agit d’une traduction de The Population Bomb, le livre du biologiste P. Ehrlich qui s’est vendu à 2 millions d’exemplaires aux Etats-Unis.”

From the ecological and environmental point of view, Samuel had a prominent role. Céline Plessis sums up his personality and his action in these terms:

“D’une extrême gentillesse et d’une grande douceur, plus âgé et ayant vécu la guerre, P. Samuel est une figure de stabilité dans Survivre, qui contraste avec la virulence d’autres membres de Survivre. Il assure avec attention la fonction de trésorier, ouvre sa porte à des permanences du groupe et est un des auteurs les plus prolixes du petit groupe. Grothendieck et lui imposent à Survivre leur conception utopique d’une société écologique à échelle humaine équipée de technologies douces, pacifiée et équilibrée, avant qu’une plus jeune génération ne radicalise le propos de la revue. D’une grande ouverture, il participera à ces nombreux combats d’une extrême radicalité sans se départir de sa non-violence et de son calme. Imprégné de la philosophie grecque et adepte du stoïcisme, son plaidoyer sera toujours tourné vers la `détente’ et la `modération’.”

Grothendieck, who is still alive, has given his agreement to “Mathematics of Planet Earth.” No doubt, Pierre Samuel would have been happy to praise Christiane Rousseau and all the people at the origin of this highly significant initiative.

Claude Paul Bruter

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