Bryson was instrumental in bringing climate onto the political radar during the World Food Crisis of 1973, shocking both the US and Canadian political establishments into paying more attention to the issue. In addition, Bryson's personal contribution to the rise of climate discourse has been underexplored in the historical literature. By examining the controversies that Bryson instigated and the currents that he swam against, we can see the wider community crystallizing and promoting positions that may have previously gone unstated. He was not swayed by the arguments for global warming, even as the framing became the recognized face of climate change in the late 1980s.
To the dismay of many of his colleagues, he publicly made climatological prognoses in the 1970s, becoming a significant figure in the media landscape. In the 1960s, Bryson was a leader in the wider academic turn toward politically charged interdisciplinarianism. Reid Allen Bryson (1920–2008) was a forceful orator who consistently fought against institutional pressures to get his messages out to the public.
