Reid Bryson

Reid Bryson (7 June 1920 – 11 June 2008 [cite news|url=http://www.madison.com/tct/news/291195|title=UW prof Bryson, climatology pioneer, dies at 88|date=2008-06-12|work=The Capital Times|accessdate=2008-06-13] ) was an American atmospheric scientist, geologist and meteorologist. He was a professor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He completed a B.A. in geology at Denison University in 1941 and a Ph.D. in meteorology from University of Chicago in 1948. In 1946 he joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and in 1948 he became the first chairman of the Department of Meteorology. He became the first director of the Institute for Environmental Studies in 1970.

Views

Bryson was skeptical of the theory of anthropogenic global warming. While he argued that climate change and a global increase in temperature are real, he did not believe that they are caused by human activity. Rather, he argued that they are part of natural global climate cycles, particularly the end of the Little Ice Age:

:"All this argument is the temperature going up or not, it’s absurd," Bryson continues. "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." [cite news | first=Dave | last=Hoopman | coauthors= | title= The Faithful Heretic: A Wisconsin Icon Pursues Tough Questions | date=2007-05 | publisher= | url =http://www.wecnmagazine.com/2007issues/may/may07.html | work =Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News | pages = | accessdate = 2008-04-21 | language = ]

elected publications

Bryson wrote more than 230 articles and five books, including "Climates of Hunger", which won the Banta Medal for Literary Achievement. [http://www.alumnifriends.mines.edu/photo_gallery/2003/hon_degree_medal_200305/bryson.htm]

Books

* R. A. Bryson, "Airmasses, Streamlines, and the Boreal Forest" 1966: Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, Geography Branch
* R. A. Bryson, FK Hare, "Climates of North America" 1974: Elsevier Scientific Pub. Co New York
* R. A. Bryson & TJ Murray, "Climates of Hunger: Mankind and the World's Changing Weather", 1977: University of Wisconsin Press

Articles

* R. A. Bryson, "A Perspective on Climatic Change", "Science", Volume 184, Issue 4138, pp. 753-760. Publication Date: 05/1974
* R. A. Bryson, BM Goodman, "Volcanic Activity and Climatic Changes" Science, 1980

External links

* [http://ccr.meteor.wisc.edu/bryson/bryson.html Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin, May 2007] `
* [ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/climate_forcing/bryson1988/ Volcanic Eruptions and Aerosol Optical Depth Data, 2002]

References