Climate Lynx

I am typing from a camping trailer in the Peregrine Pines camping facility at the Air Force Academy. It's been 50 years since I have seen most of my class of '73 cadet mates. This trip has been meaningful for many reasons. Seeing my long-lost squadron members, the Blackjack Squadron, was a chance to thank them. Getting through a military academy can be a bit of a challenge. In my case, the challenge was steep. I could not have graduated without the help of my classmates and I felt it my duty to come and express my gratitude. The Air Force Academy looks the same as when I attended, with a few new buildings. Today, the potential conflicts the cadets train to meet are different and continually changing. When I was a cadet, we prepared to meet the challenges of the Vietnam War as well as the nuclear cold war. After 9/11, the focus of our Department of Defense shifted to counterterrorism. Now, the DOD is pivoting to meet the challenge of rising authoritarian regimes in China and R...

  I laughed at this wry comment on man’s bottomless need to consume. It was said with good but sarcastic humor by a gentleman I considered my second dad. Bob was a man who lived life well and fully but was also humble and self-reflective. He, some forty years ago, knew man would challenge Earth’s ability to meet not only our wants, but if we continued to abuse Mother Earth, our devotion to consumption would render her unable to meet our needs. While the scientists of reputable science organizations tell us goal number one is to cease creating greenhouse gas pollution, there are related backstories that a wise and self-reflective society must confront. The big backstory often revolves around consumption.    How will we meet the basic needs of humankind in the near future? This is not a problem we should leave only to the scientists. Today, our farmers provide us with more food than we consume. Agronomists and other scientists have made this possible by helping farmers ...

Sometimes facts tied to dates and numbers are revealing. 167 years ago (in 1856), Scientist Eunice Foote discovered the role of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere with a simple experiment. Tubes of different air mixtures were left in the sun. The one with the most CO2 heated the most. In connection with the history of the Earth, Foote theorized that "An atmosphere of that gas (CO2) would give to our earth a high temperature; and if, as some suppose, at one period of its history, the air had mixed with it a larger proportion than at present, an increased temperature from its own action, as well as from increased weight, must have necessarily resulted." Her theory was a clear statement of climatic warming caused by increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. * 163 years ago, (in 1860), Scientist John Tyndall was first to quantify in his laboratory that some visually transparent gases are infrared emitters (heat emitters). Proving beyond a doubt, Carbon Dioxide is a greenho...