Jamison immediately set about addressing the first hole that needed Gobscheit’s awareness.

The first quiet snake in the tent that mandated the NSA’s attention before it bit him unawares. The computer Mark was provided was tied in to amazing resources, some of which showed security classifications needed for entry. All of the required sign-ins were overridden, however, so Mark just had a field day of it. To say the atmosphere at the EEOB was relaxed would have been an understatement.The first hole that Jamison needed to bring to Gobscheit’s attention was more of an elephant, rather than a snake in the tent. It was an elephant that the folks running the place just seemed not to want to see. This couldn’t remain the case for long and Mark dug into it during his first morning hours. Global climate change immediately occupied him.

Digging through the files now available to him, Mark found climate change, and more specifically global warming, was seen as a global security threat for at least three decades, with formal recognition in annual threat assessments dating back to 2008. Various administrations, including Republican ones, had acknowledged the risks. While this administration had downplayed or removed climate change from public threat assessments, Gobscheit needed to be aware that senior military and intelligence officials had consistently emphasized its importance. Some had called it an “existential threat”.