Character from Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The climatologist who calculated how long Earth had before the cold killed everyone — and proposed nuclear detonations in Antarctica as a way to buy time.
Leclerc deals in timelines of extinction. His climate models showed exactly how quickly Earth's temperature would drop as the Astrophage dimmed the Sun, and his proposed interventions — including detonating nuclear weapons in Western Antarctica to release methane as a greenhouse gas stopgap — reveal the desperation of the situation. When nuclear detonations become a reasonable climate strategy, you know the math is bad. He is clinical about catastrophe in the way only a scientist can be: the numbers are the numbers, emotions don't change the projections, and the only useful response is to buy time for the people who might actually solve the problem.
French academic bearing — the controlled urgency of someone who models apocalypse for a living and has to present the results calmly.
Also known as: Leclerc, Dr. Leclerc