Dual Threats - 279

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 Russia.

Since I was a cadet, the battlespace has broadened to cyber war. DOD satellites and electronic listening devices constantly probe our potential adversaries' defenses. To be effective in war today, one must be the better electronic trickster to gain an edge. Our hackers and computer wizards must be the best. If our men and women can get into the enemies' computers, we can disable their weapons, cripple their infrastructure, and electronically blind them.

The era of manned aircraft is giving way to unmanned drones. Our potential adversaries also have cyber capabilities like jamming communications with our crewless attack vehicles.  This raises the possibility we will need to launch attacks with weapon systems that can search and destroy on their own. With the rise of artificial intelligence, we are all in, especially the military, new uncharted cyberspace. Seeing all the young cadets training to meet these new challenges was comforting and sobering.

Modern warfare is one threat we are meeting. Ninety miles north of the AFA, on a mesa just west of Boulder, Colorado, is another institution meeting another threat to our survival. It is the National Center for Atmospheric Research, NCAR. NCAR is the nexus of a web of Climate Scientists which connects 120 of our colleges and universities. Its goal is to meet and defeat the specter of rapid climate change. They work with all institutions of excellence, such as NASA and NOAA. Their supercomputers link with their partners to fine-tune our already well-understood understanding of climate change. They engineer many of the parts satellites use, confirming we are warming due to the insulative effects of fossil fuel greenhouse gasses. These satellites also monitor the rising seas, detect depleting underground water resources, and document glaciers and ice caps melting.

NCAR is an overlooked gem of our scientific prowess. It is just as fascinating a place to visit as the Air Force Academy but needs more governmental financial support to promote itself. Its location is even more naturally breathtaking than the AFA , perched on a high on a mesa overlooking the impressive stone "Flatirons." NCAR's exhibits and information are informative as well as entertaining. It was reassuring to visit a whole floor on climate change whose message remained consistent with the information I have given you in the last five years.

This is NCAR's message on climate change: "The climate is changing. We want to know what happens next.

We are experts in how the climate system works. For decades, we've diligently studied the complex connections that determine whether a region is prone to monsoons or droughts, summertime thunderstorms or giant winter blizzards, vicious heatwaves or intense cold snaps.

With this understanding, we've built sophisticated climate models that allow us to both understand past and present climate as well as investigate how the climate is likely to change in the future.

Global warming is already having a noticeable effect on the United States and the world. Warming air and oceans have begun amplifying storms, altering precipitation patterns, and contributing to sea level rise. Our scientists are working to quantify the changes that are already upon us and predict what the future may bring, as well as creating tools that allow other scientists to do the same.”

For more information on what you can do to combat climate change, search NCAR or the "National Center for Atmospheric Research."