Friday, June 13, 2008

RIP Reid Bryson


Update: In this story, it looks like Bryson's alarmist colleague Jonathan Foley tried to downplay the true extent of Bryson's AGW skepticism:
Bryson gained fame also as an outspoken skeptic of global warming. He accepted that the climate was changing, but he questioned the prevailing view that human causes are to blame.

I’m not convinced he 100% disbelieved the idea of global warming; he just wanted to make sure we were asking the tough questions,” Foley said. “What was great about Reid is you could trust his motives. Reid’s healthy skepticism was one of integrity and honesty.”
An actual quote from Bryson from this May 2007 article:
You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide.
To me, that sounds like 100% disbelief.

Regarding Foley's alarmism, here's a related paragraph from an April 2006 article:
The future of a warming world looks bleak, says Foley. After only 0.6 degrees C of warming, we are already seeing major changes in plants, animals, rainfall, ice and sea level. Even the few skeptics of 10 years ago are now silent, and the scientific position is unanimous: "It's pretty much nailed... . You can't read a paper without reading another piece of evidence for global warming. At the edges, there are a few questions, but the scientific score is 1,000 to 0. This is not a big bunch of hooey."

1 comment:

Thomas Bryson said...

Reid Bryson did not 100% disbelieve climate change. He was perhaps the first scientist to point out that man affected the world'S climate. His position was that the driver of climate change was more complex that is generally understood.