No one knows the exact dates when various ancient civilizations figured out the importance of seed corn. The idea that you do not eat the entire crop of a food plant, but rather save some to plant in the spring, was discovered over the centuries by many cultures. In the Americas, evidence of saving seed dates back more than 8,700 years. In Europe, the term “seed corn” is first found in written evidence sometime before 1450, but essentially all agricultural-based civilizations figured out you can’t eat an entire crop, as you will be hungry again the next year. Save some seed corn. Hang onto that thought for a minute.

Recently, Colorado Politics reported on the Trump administration’s plan to dissolve and ultimately kill the National Center for Climate Research (NCAR), located near Boulder. This plan is yet another example, and quite likely the very worst example, of the Trump administration’s willingness to ignore climate change data (it’s going to be 65 and sunny on Christmas, people) that is inconvenient for the fossil fuel industry while also trying to find ways to punish Colorado for having the audacity to vote against Trump in, well, every presidential election in which he has run.

We have seen this pettiness before, with the order to move Space Command from its multi-billion-dollar facilities in Colorado Springs to the deep-red Alabama, where more billions will be spent to replace the buildings, labs, test facilities and more. Why? Because Colorado is blue and Trump is petty. In fact, Trump reminds me of the way Alexander Hamilton once describes the states before being unified. He warned states acting on their own were “jarring, jealous and perverse.” I think that is a pretty good summary of how Trump sees the world, always looking for anything, he can do to cause injury to those he views as his enemies. You know, anyone who isn’t a MAGA nut.

A few years back, as part of my role then as a senior research fellow at a DC-based think tank, I was asked to escort several retired general officers to NCAR, and to accompany them on a tour of that remarkable facility. I was delighted to do so, and I learned the full breadth of the vital atmospheric work they do on that lovely campus. We toured labs looking at various gases that contribute to climate change and what can be done to mitigate their impacts. We toured a supercomputer, one of a handful of such machines existing in the world. This one was autographed by a former Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize in Physics winner.

That machine is amazing, and as an example of what it could do, they showed us the work they had done calculating, on that supercomputer, the eddies and currents of air that come off large scale wind turbines. That might seem pedestrian, but in the early years of setting up wind farms for such turbines, they were often just planted in a grid pattern, behind and next to each other. That might seem logical, but the results for the turbines in the second row and beyond were far less than had been estimate. In some cases, the turbines delivered 20% less energy than had been predicted.

Using the supercomputer, the scientists at NCAR were able to calculate (and then to show, using 3D goggles, which was really cool to see) the actual air flow patterns behind turbines, and to realize that when mounted in a grid, the wind blowing behind one turbine directly impacted those behind it. Using that data, wind energy engineers are now able to create virtual layouts of proposed installations and to then calculate the best places to put each turbine, saving millions of dollars in lost energy production.

Even more pathetic, Trump and his minions are firing hundreds of NCAR personnel, including a number of scientists and engineers because, well, because they can. They also cut a satellite program that was vital to weather prediction, just as we were entering the 2025 hurricane season, though to be fair, much like the fire season, the hurricane season is essentially year round now. I’m reminded of the GOP congressman, a few years back, who called for the elimination of the National Weather Service, since we now have the Weather Channel, blissfully unaware of where the Weather Channel gets its data, sigh.

I am sure on some level these cuts make people like Trump and his thoughtless and undereducated sycophants happy, as they are sticking it to Colorado. Take that, Gov. Polis! But such pettiness is wrong and foolish, like when Trump rejected disaster aid for Colorado following our recent fires and flooding (an approval that, in previous administrations had been apolitical and especially automatic), seeing another chance to stick it to Polis, Bennet, and Hickenlooper. But these Trump cronies, especially in his second term, are simply too, well, dumb to understand the full impact of their actions.

Sure, they laid off a bunch of scientists, likely egghead Dems, they assume, but what they have really done is sit down to a big fancy feast of seed corn (see? I told you I’d get back to this). When Trump and his team purposefully destroy organizations like NCAR and others, they are voraciously gobbling down our scientific future.

If successful in destroying, say NCAR, Trump will have made it near-impossible for a future administration to put that vital organization back together.

Think Humpty Dumpty.

Scientists and engineers will have moved on to other work and might well be cautious about returning to an organization that can be dissolved by presidential whim. Airplanes that once flew bravely through hurricanes to measure their strength will have been mothballed or cannibalized for other missions. I imagine quite a few corporations will be happy to bid on the NCAR supercomputer at pennies on the dollar.

The scientific seed corn of our civilization will be gone.

The Founders anticipated disagreements. They anticipated squabbles over policy, and they did not really worry about rank incompetence and pettiness, because they had built a variety of safeguards into the Constitution. The electoral college was supposed to keep the incompetent out of the presidency, and congress was supposed to be a check on crazed presidential spending, while the Supreme Court was to ensure that a future administration couldn’t just assume any power it desired.

Sadly, these days the other branches of government, to say nothing of the electoral college, have failed their constitutional duties again and again, bending the knee to a foolish wannabe tyrant. I truly do not understand the stranglehold Trump has over the other two branches, but it is undeniable and tragic.

I do not know when, if ever, NCAR will rise from the coming ashes. Hopefully, sooner rather than later. But regardless, the Trump anti-Colorado bravado will have cost billions and likely lives in weather not forecast and hurricanes untracked. History is not likely to be kind.

Stay tuned.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.