A respected expert in national security and defense affairs, Pamela Berkowsky has decades of government experience and has been certified as a Climate Communicator by the CLEO Institute. As the President of Blue Sapphire Strategies, a public affairs consultancy she founded, Pamela Berkowsky is also a senior executive defense consultant to the South Florida Defense Alliance (www.southfloridadefensealliance.org) for which she focuses on resiliency and the national security implications of climate change, particularly the impacts on U.S. military installations, personnel, readiness, and operations. Climate change and extreme weather events such as flooding, storms, and drought have adversely affected U.S. military facilities. For example, Hurricane Florence – which hit North Carolina in 2018 -- dumped 36 inches of rain and flooded three Marine Corps installations, causing $3.6 billion in damage. That same year, Hurricane Michael destroyed Tyndall Air Force base in Florida, causing damage valued at least at $4.7 billion. Given the burgeoning costs, and cascading impacts on readiness and operations, climate resiliency is a major concern for the Department of Defense (DOD), which defines resilience as the ability to prepare, anticipate, and adapt to changing conditions in order to respond to, withstand, and quickly recover from disruptions. According to a July 2021 speech by Joe Bryan, the Pentagon’s senior climate advisor, climate change is affecting the military’s resources and readiness and numerous investments must be made to mitigate the deleterious impacts. Despite the U.S. having advanced climate modeling technology, there remain opportunities for improvement in preparedness, including in climate data and analysis. This includes boosting computing power and using higher resolution technologies to monitor the small-scale effects that are key to observing regional climate patterns, especially in coastal areas. The DOD should also model various climate disaster scenarios at key military installations. Analysis should take into consideration impact on infrastructure, assets, and surrounding communities, as well as warning time and response time. Investing in smart technologies will help the DOD effectively integrate both current as well as projected climate impact scenarios into their planning cycles, in order to make necessary infrastructure modifications.

1. How the DOD can Invest in Military Climate Resiliency
Pamela Berkowsky

2. Introduction
A respected expert in national security and defense affairs, Pamela Berkowsky has
decades of government experience and has been certified as a Climate Communicator
by the CLEO Institute. As the President of Blue Sapphire Strategies, a public affairs
consultancy she founded, Pamela Berkowsky is also a senior executive defense
consultant to the South Florida Defense Alliance (www.southfloridadefensealliance.org)
for which she focuses on resiliency and the national security implications of climate
change, particularly the impacts on U.S. military installations, personnel, readiness, and
operations.

3. Climate change and extreme weather events such as flooding, storms, and drought
have adversely affected U.S. military facilities. For example, Hurricane Florence – which
hit North Carolina in 2018 -- dumped 36 inches of rain and flooded three Marine Corps
installations, causing $3.6 billion in damage. That same year, Hurricane Michael
destroyed Tyndall Air Force base in Florida, causing damage valued at least at $4.7
billion. Given the burgeoning costs, and cascading impacts on readiness and
operations, climate resiliency is a major concern for the Department of Defense (DOD),
which defines resilience as the ability to prepare, anticipate, and adapt to changing
conditions in order to respond to, withstand, and quickly recover from disruptions.
According to a July 2021 speech by Joe Bryan, the Pentagon’s senior climate advisor,
climate change is affecting the military’s resources and readiness and numerous
investments must be made to mitigate the deleterious impacts. Despite the U.S. having
advanced climate modeling technology, there remain opportunities for improvement in
preparedness, including in climate data and analysis. This includes boosting computing
power and using higher resolution technologies to monitor the small-scale effects that