The scientific community is mourning the death of a glaciologist who improved our understanding of the Earth.

Renowned glaciologist Claude Lorius, who contributed significantly to the understanding of global warming, has passed away at the age of 91. 

Lorius died on Tuesday in the French region of Burgundy, according to his former colleague and palaeoclimatologist Jerome Chappellaz. 

Lorius was a leading polar explorer who led 22 expeditions in Greenland and Antarctica, where he lived on and off for six years.
A great scientist, “Claude was also of the finest calibre of polar expedition adventurers”, said the famous French explorer Jean-Louis Etienne in a video posted on Twitter.

He was able to confirm human involvement in global warming after studying ice cores drilled deep into the frozen polar landscape during a 1984 expedition at the most remote Russian Antarctic base, Vostok.
“I did not choose science, I chose adventure,” said the pioneering climatologist, born in 1932, in a past interview with AFP.

“We were extraordinarily lucky since Antarctica is the best place to bear witness to the planet's environmental problems,” said Lorius.

Lorius dedicated himself to mobilising the fight against global warming and was an inaugural expert for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).