Source: [1]
Reid Bryson was an atmospheric scientist, geologist, and meteorologist. He was a prominent skeptic and hero to the skeptical science community. He passed away in June, 2008. He was a professor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Bryson was an early proponent of global cooling. He described fears that global cooling would produce food shortages, saying that "the climate of earth is changing and is changing in a direction that is not promising in terms of our ability to feed the world."
"All this argument is the temperature going up or not, it's absurd. . . Of course it’s going up. It has gone up since the early 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, because we’re coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we’re putting more carbon dioxide into the air." [2]
"You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide." [2]
"There are a number of causes of climatic change, and until all causes other than carbon dioxide increase are ruled out, we cannot attribute the change to carbon dioxide alone." [3]
Dec 20, 2008
Bryson's name appeared on a U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee report, (PDF) among other scientists disputing man-made global warming.
Dec 13, 2007
Bryson was a signatory to the 2007 open letter to secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon that stresses how "Attempts to prevent global climate change from occurring are ultimately futile, and constitute a tragic misallocation of resources that would be better spent on humanity's real and pressing problems."
Dec 6, 2007
Appeared on the CNBC's "Squawk Box" program where he discussed the "Myth of a Warming Earth":
Books:
Articles:
"Pioneer of climatology dies at 88." University of Wisconsin-Madison News. June 12, 2008.
"The Faithful Heretic." Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News. May, 2007.
"Global Warming?" (PDF). ICECAP.
"Reid Bryson," SourceWatch Profile.
Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.
There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.
THERE’S a section on the Heartland Institute’s website pointing readers to “Stuff We Wish We Wrote”.
After events over the last year or so, the chaps at the fossil fuel-funded “think tank” might want to add a new section with the title “Stuff We Wish We Hadn’t Wrote”.
The Heartland Institute, for those who don’t know, is a Chicago-based group promoting any view or position that argues we shouldn’t do anything about human-caused climate change. They run campaigns, hold conferences...
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