“Acceptance Speech” Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2023 in Climate Change

Acceptance speech by James C. Zachos, winner of the 2023 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change, who was honored alongside Ellen Thomas for their contributions to the discovery and study of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a global warming event that occurred 56 million years ago. Their research has helped explain the consequences of massive greenhouse gas emissions and improve the models used to predict future climate change.

Zachos explains how the analysis of marine and terrestrial sediments made it possible to reconstruct this warming event, during which global temperatures rose by 5 to 6°C and significant changes occurred in the oceans and ecosystems. He highlights the value of the PETM as a reference for validating greenhouse warming theories and understanding the risks of current climate change. He also emphasizes the importance of studying geological records from the past to anticipate the consequences of carbon emissions caused by human activities.