AZCentral - Anton L. Delgado
Climate change is a continuing threat to national security both at
home and abroad, according to Stephen Cheney, a retired brigadier
general who is now president of the
American Security Project.
 |
Airman 1st Class Christopher Bress, a bioenvironmental engineering technician, adjusts the Wet Bulb Globe Thermometer used daily at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to assess extreme weather conditions. Courtesy of Dorothy Sherwood
|
"What we have seen today is unprecedented heat going on in the country
and in the world. Those of you who are in Arizona certainly understand,"
Cheney said this week in an online forum.
"We have to acknowledge the risk of climate change. The risks are real
and growing every day," he said. "If there is any one part of us that is
threatened the most, it's our national security."
Cheney spoke
specifically about how climate change in Arizona could affect national
security during his keynote address in a webinar hosted by Arizona
Forward, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Association of Defense
Communities.
The issues are connected and need greater attention, organizers said.
“National security is typically not a top-of-mind issue when we
consider climate change," said Lori Singleton, president and CEO of
Arizona Forward. "But
recognizing the serious impacts of climate and weather-related events
occurring across the country, we were interested in learning more about
this critical topic.”
The most direct affect climate change has on national security in Arizona is in the state’s military bases.
“Climate
change really impacts military training readiness in Arizona because
extreme heat is going to limit the amount of time a person can spend
outside,” Cheney said. “As a former commander of a Marine Corps base, we
have always put health and safety as no. 1. We are going to protect the
troops first.”
 |
Retired Brig. Gen. Stephen Cheney is now the president of the American Security Project. Courtesy Stephen Cheney
|
Training for heat-related hazards
Arizona
is home to multiple military bases representing several branches,
including: Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Luke Air Force Base, Barry M.
Goldwater Air Force Range, Yuma Proving Ground Army Base, Camp Navajo
Army Base, Fort Huachuca and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.
If
a black flag is flying over any of these bases that usually indicates
all physical training and strenuous exercise is suspended. Across the
Air Force, Army and Marines, the flag flies when temperature hits 90
degrees and above.
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
recognized its first black flag day this summer on July 8. There have
been 16 others since, according to Master Sgt. Kate Grady.
Grady is the base's flight chief of bioenvironmental engineering. She
oversees any occupational health and safety issues facing airmen on
base. One of her daily tasks is reading a wet bulb globe thermometer and
reporting its results to command.
“It helps us alert
the base to conditions and allows us to try to alleviate any heat
stress issues airmen may encounter,” Grady said. “When we do have hot
conditions, that doesn’t mean the mission stops, but people adhere to
them as much as possible by taking more breaks and drinking more water.”
 |
The Wet Bulb Globe Thermometer used daily at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to assess extreme weather conditions. Courtesy of Dorothy Sherwood
|
Airmen commonly participate in the Air Force’s Thermal Injury
Prevention Program to learn how to address the issues posed by extreme
temperatures in Arizona. Grady said it teaches airmen how to adapt to
the heat and still complete their mission.
“Training
makes them aware of heat-related hazards and aware of what they can do
to keep it from affecting them,” Grady said. “We do our best to take
care of our people and we work with what we have because the mission
always needs to get done.”
There have been no heat stress-related deaths or medical issues at Davis-Monthan so far this summer, Grady confirmed.
As
part of daily temperature collection, Grady also factors in the fighter
index of thermal stress. This considers the conditions a pilot may face
while in the cockpit of an aircraft.
'Too hot to fly'
Less flight time will be another side effect of extreme temperatures, Cheney said in the online forum.
“Extreme
heat means in some cases it’ll be too hot to fly,” Cheney said. “Heat
creates thinner air, which won’t have enough density for planes to take
off.”
As summer temperatures continue to break
records in Arizona, Cheney said flights and physical training will most
likely start taking place at night.
“While there are
benefits to this because wars happen no matter what time of day,
switching to a night model in a training base is incredibly disruptive,”
Cheney said. “Everyone in all of the services has families and the
whole aspect of normal living gets disrupted if everything starts
getting done at night.”
During his years of active
service, Cheney served as the executive officer of an artillery
battalion in California. The unit was so well known for its nightly
operations that one of its slogans is, “We own the night.”
“Take
my word for it, no other country in the world operates as well at night
as the U.S., but it’s really not ideal for our troops in training,”
Cheney said.
Cheney believes the most effective step
to mitigate the warming weather and maintain national security is for
the Department of Defense, the government’s largest consumer of fossil
fuels, to invest in renewable energy and lower its CO2 emissions.
“The
military understands this but given certain administrations it has
waxed and waned in importance,” Cheney said. “Even if you choose not to
believe that human activity contributes to climate change, we can’t wait
until there is a 100% certainty. We have to do something about climate
change.”
In Arizona, he says the solution lies in solar power.
“It’s
so hot in your state because the sun is shining so much, so use that.
Use what is heating us up to cool us down,” Cheney said. “Arizona could
take the national lead in solar energy because it has the environment
and landscape to do so.”
According to the
Solar Energy Industries Association, Arizona ranks
third in the country for cumulative amount of “solar electric capacity” installed in the first quarter of 2020.
Beyond
the military push to combat climate change, Cheney’s suggestion to the
130 Arizonan businesses, cities and other environmental non-profits who
attended the webinar, was to fight carbon emissions from the ground up.
“The
average Joe would say there is nothing we can do about it, but that’s
not true. Don’t be like the average Joe. Moderate your air conditioning,
cut down on power use, there are a multitude of things the individual
American can do,” Cheney said. “When we’ve all done that, we can also
start leaning pretty hard on our elected officials to make sure they are
making the best decisions for our community.”
Links
