French President Nicolas Sarkozy may appoint renowned geophysicist Dr. Claude Allegre – France’s most outspoken global warming skeptic — as the new super-ministry of industry and innovation. According to a story filed by Climate Depot, Sarkozy appears ready to appoint the scientist who mocked former US vice president Al Gore's Nobel Prize as a “political gimmick” to the high ranking scientific post. The report states that Allegre’s appointment would send “political earthquakes” through Europe and the rest of the world. The Financial Times reported that the possible appointment has “drawn strong protests” from environmentalists including Nicolas Hulot, France’s best-known environmental activist who said, “Putting him in charge of scientific research would be tantamount to 'giving the finger to scientists,'" The Financial Times reported. Allegre has not always been anti-global warming. He was among the first scientists to sound global warming fears 20 years ago. Only in recent years has Allegre reversed his views to become one of the most vocal dissenters of “man-made” global warming. As a member of both the French and US Academies of Science, Allegre has authored more than 100 scientific articles, written 11 books, and received numerous scientific awards including the Goldschmidt Medal from the Geochemical Society of the United States. Allegre now asserts that the cause of climate change is unknown. He has labeled Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” as “nonsense,” saying on Oct. 14, 2007, "The amount of nonsense in Al Gore's film! It's all politics; it's designed to intervene in American politics. It's scandalous." Allegre has not taken criticism lying down, accusing his environmental critics of spreading “lies and distortions” about his record and beliefs. “As a scientist and citizen, I, unlike others, do not want environmentalism to accentuate the crisis or make the least well-off suffer more,” Allegre said in a recent Financial Times article. Although Allegre was one of 1,500 scientists who signed the 1992 letter titled “World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" warning that global warming's "potential risks are very great," he now believes the global warming hysteria is motivated by money. "The ecology of helpless protesting has become a very lucrative business for some people!" he explained. In October 2007, US Senator James Inhofe from Oklahoma highlighted Allegre's recent conversion to a dissenter of global warming. “I find it ironic that a free market conservative capitalist in the US Senate and a French Socialist scientist both apparently agree that sound science is not what is driving this debate, but greed by those who would use this issue to line their own pockets,” Inhofe said. In 2009, rhetoric has swelled around the topics of environmental stewardship, global warming, and greening the economy. With Allegre’s possible appointment in the wings, the global discourse on climate change may finally see a balance due to rational opposition.