Lawrence Culver
@lawrencecphd.bsky.social
Historian of environment/climate/disaster/cities/culture. SLC via AL and LA; UCLA Bruin. Book: The Frontier of Leisure: SoCal and the Shaping of Modern America; currently writing a book about climate and history in the US and North America.
Reposted by Lawrence Culver
In 1924, Calvin Coolidge's 16-yr-old son played tennis on the White House grounds w/o wearing socks. He got a blister and was dead from infection a week later.
This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.
This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.
For a yr, I've been working on a series for The New Atlantis about the vast systems that underlie our lives. Our ancestors built them up over decades to fend off hunger, thirst, darkness and disease. But too few of us know about them—and they're all at risk. The conclusion is now available online:
Why We Are Better Off Than a Century Ago
Our ancestors built grand public systems to conquer hunger, thirst, darkness, and squalor. That progress can be lost if we forget it.
www.thenewatlantis.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:03 PM
In 1924, Calvin Coolidge's 16-yr-old son played tennis on the White House grounds w/o wearing socks. He got a blister and was dead from infection a week later.
This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.
This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.
“These boggy soils take hundreds to thousands of years to accumulate the carbon that is stored in [it]. In some cases, it’s burning right down to the rock. Over a very short period of time, we are combusting all of this ancient carbon into the atmosphere.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Zombie fires: how Arctic wildfires that come back to life are ravaging forests
Blazes that smoulder in the permafrost, only to reignite, are extending fire season though winter, leaving vegetation struggling to recover
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:08 PM
“These boggy soils take hundreds to thousands of years to accumulate the carbon that is stored in [it]. In some cases, it’s burning right down to the rock. Over a very short period of time, we are combusting all of this ancient carbon into the atmosphere.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
I discovered this outfit today when I saw a billboard promising they could refill the Great Salt Lake.
The US stopped moving through the Kubler Ross stages of climate grief with denial, and some of it will never budge.
Just keep following that plow until it rains, baby! Wow.
www.rainmaker.com
The US stopped moving through the Kubler Ross stages of climate grief with denial, and some of it will never budge.
Just keep following that plow until it rains, baby! Wow.
www.rainmaker.com
Rainmaker | Leading Cloud Seeding Technology Company in the U.S.
Rainmaker uses drone-based cloud seeding to increase rainfall, restore ecosystems, and fight drought. Learn how our scalable weather technology brings water to the West.
www.rainmaker.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:02 AM
I discovered this outfit today when I saw a billboard promising they could refill the Great Salt Lake.
The US stopped moving through the Kubler Ross stages of climate grief with denial, and some of it will never budge.
Just keep following that plow until it rains, baby! Wow.
www.rainmaker.com
The US stopped moving through the Kubler Ross stages of climate grief with denial, and some of it will never budge.
Just keep following that plow until it rains, baby! Wow.
www.rainmaker.com
The Oklahoma and US supreme courts made sure she and other survivors never received restitution for one of the worst acts of racial violence in our entire bloody history, but she remained an insistent voice of remembrance: “Our country may forget this history, but I cannot.”
Viola Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, has died. She was 111.
"I have lived through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot," she told Congress in 2021.
Geoff Bennett has more.
"I have lived through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot," she told Congress in 2021.
Geoff Bennett has more.
November 25, 2025 at 2:55 AM
The Oklahoma and US supreme courts made sure she and other survivors never received restitution for one of the worst acts of racial violence in our entire bloody history, but she remained an insistent voice of remembrance: “Our country may forget this history, but I cannot.”
Good raw, in pie, or in a pecan praline, a crop so American Washington snacked on it, Indigenous people subsisted on it while settlers ignored it, and a commercially viable hybrid was developed by an enslaved man. (And my Alabama kin can tell you it’s puh-khan, you unwashed peee-can heathens.😜)
Pecans weren’t always holiday pie royalty 🥧
They spent thousands of years being traded, poached, ignored and reinvented. But they’re nutritious and versatile and even went to the Moon on Apollo missions (yes, literally 🚀)
buff.ly/B0ANZuL
#Thanksgiving
They spent thousands of years being traded, poached, ignored and reinvented. But they’re nutritious and versatile and even went to the Moon on Apollo missions (yes, literally 🚀)
buff.ly/B0ANZuL
#Thanksgiving
How pecans went from ignored trees to a holiday staple – the 8,000-year history of America’s only native major nut crop
Pecans are a truly American nut: They grew on George Washington’s estate, and they flew to space on an Apollo mission.
buff.ly
November 24, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Good raw, in pie, or in a pecan praline, a crop so American Washington snacked on it, Indigenous people subsisted on it while settlers ignored it, and a commercially viable hybrid was developed by an enslaved man. (And my Alabama kin can tell you it’s puh-khan, you unwashed peee-can heathens.😜)
Less time & space to ski:“We’re going through this climate whiplash of extreme drought years to extreme wet years—there are just no average years anymore.”
Rising temperatures could push snowlines 1,300 to 1,600 feet higher in the Sierra Nevada by later this century.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
Rising temperatures could push snowlines 1,300 to 1,600 feet higher in the Sierra Nevada by later this century.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
Snow-starved California ski resorts delay openings despite powerful recent storms
Record-breaking rain in Southern California has brought little mountain snow, forcing multiple ski resorts to delay their season opening amid warm temperatures.
www.latimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Less time & space to ski:“We’re going through this climate whiplash of extreme drought years to extreme wet years—there are just no average years anymore.”
Rising temperatures could push snowlines 1,300 to 1,600 feet higher in the Sierra Nevada by later this century.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
Rising temperatures could push snowlines 1,300 to 1,600 feet higher in the Sierra Nevada by later this century.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
Tehran is a thousand year old city of 9 million, with a metropolitan area of 15 million. And it is quite possibly about to not be viable, its population fleeing drought.
Politicians talk about climate change and disasters in future tense, but the disasters are here, now, and they are terrifying.
Politicians talk about climate change and disasters in future tense, but the disasters are here, now, and they are terrifying.
“What once sounded unthinkable is now being said openly: Tehran is not viable; and evacuation orders are imminent.
As I wrote before, President Masoud Pezeshkian himself said that it might be necessary to relocate Tehranis in large number.” open.substack.com/pub/peterfra...
As I wrote before, President Masoud Pezeshkian himself said that it might be necessary to relocate Tehranis in large number.” open.substack.com/pub/peterfra...
Makran or Bust: Tehran's water crisis gets worse
Ten days ago I wrote that Tehran was approaching a point where warnings, pressure cuts and appeals to save water would no longer be enough.
open.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Tehran is a thousand year old city of 9 million, with a metropolitan area of 15 million. And it is quite possibly about to not be viable, its population fleeing drought.
Politicians talk about climate change and disasters in future tense, but the disasters are here, now, and they are terrifying.
Politicians talk about climate change and disasters in future tense, but the disasters are here, now, and they are terrifying.
“We went back over there again. We dug it all out again. We put ladders on it. We did everything that we could do—cold-trail again. We did all of that.”
Except the LA Fire Department didn’t do any of that before the Palisades fire erupted.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
Except the LA Fire Department didn’t do any of that before the Palisades fire erupted.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
LAFD records show no sign of 'cold trailing' again at Lachman fire, as interim chief had claimed
The conflict between the LAFD’s statements and its own records is likely to intensify frustration and anger among Palisades fire victims over contradictory and incomplete information about what was do...
www.latimes.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:49 PM
“We went back over there again. We dug it all out again. We put ladders on it. We did everything that we could do—cold-trail again. We did all of that.”
Except the LA Fire Department didn’t do any of that before the Palisades fire erupted.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
Except the LA Fire Department didn’t do any of that before the Palisades fire erupted.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
In the US the official estimate, of about 1,200 a year, “is probably at least a tenfold undercount”. The great majority are recorded as heart attacks, kidney failure or other conditions. But epidemiological data show how deaths spike during heatwaves.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
There’s a catastrophic black hole in our climate data – and it’s a gift to deniers | George Monbiot
Climate sceptics tell us that more people die of extreme cold than extreme heat. What’s the truth? asks Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:30 AM
In the US the official estimate, of about 1,200 a year, “is probably at least a tenfold undercount”. The great majority are recorded as heart attacks, kidney failure or other conditions. But epidemiological data show how deaths spike during heatwaves.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
“It was one of the spots in the park where the trees are supposed to be able to live, even 100 years from now…when most places in the park will not be suitable for Joshua trees…
In the era of climate change, Joshua trees won’t survive in Joshua Tree National Park absent active management.”
In the era of climate change, Joshua trees won’t survive in Joshua Tree National Park absent active management.”
Hundreds of Joshua trees were scorched during the shutdown
Hundreds of Joshua trees were scorched during the shutdown
A firefighter with the National Park Service says a fire wiped out more than a thousand Joshua trees amid the government shutdown. Restoration could be limited by a depleted staff, they said.
www.latimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:33 PM
“It was one of the spots in the park where the trees are supposed to be able to live, even 100 years from now…when most places in the park will not be suitable for Joshua trees…
In the era of climate change, Joshua trees won’t survive in Joshua Tree National Park absent active management.”
In the era of climate change, Joshua trees won’t survive in Joshua Tree National Park absent active management.”
Gift article. Climate disasters & rising insurance rates may be the death knell for some US housing markets: “Homeowners don’t appreciate or don’t understand that we are living in a much riskier world than we were 25 years ago. And that risk? They have to pay for it.”
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Rising Home Insurance Premiums Are Eating Into Home Values in Disaster-Prone Areas (Gift Article)
Changes in the insurance market have started to affect home prices in the most disaster-prone areas, new research finds, pushing some homeowners’ finances to the breaking point.
www.nytimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Gift article. Climate disasters & rising insurance rates may be the death knell for some US housing markets: “Homeowners don’t appreciate or don’t understand that we are living in a much riskier world than we were 25 years ago. And that risk? They have to pay for it.”
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
He started at FEMA by threatening staff, and ended by skipping out to pursue more lucrative private sector gigs. In the interim he skipped work, didn’t answer his phone during the Texas floods, and let his security password expire so he couldn’t log into any FEMA systems.
Heckuva job, Richie!
Heckuva job, Richie!
Acting FEMA Chief Quitting To Spend More Time Not Going To Work At FEMA
www.wonkette.com/p/acting-fem...
By Doktor Zoom @doktorzoom.bsky.social
www.wonkette.com/p/acting-fem...
By Doktor Zoom @doktorzoom.bsky.social
Acting FEMA Chief Quitting To Spend More Time Not Going To Work At FEMA
He'll leave at the end of hurricane season, which he'd never heard of.
www.wonkette.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:21 AM
He started at FEMA by threatening staff, and ended by skipping out to pursue more lucrative private sector gigs. In the interim he skipped work, didn’t answer his phone during the Texas floods, and let his security password expire so he couldn’t log into any FEMA systems.
Heckuva job, Richie!
Heckuva job, Richie!
The FEMA director so well qualified that he was apparently surprised to learn that hurricanes have a season.
Maybe next time they could appoint somebody who understands disasters, instead of somebody who is one.
Maybe next time they could appoint somebody who understands disasters, instead of somebody who is one.
FEMA Director David Richardson has resigned after being criticized for being inaccessible, including during the Texas floods in July.
FEMA head resigns. Richardson had been hard to reach during Texas floods.
David Richardson resigned Monday after a brief tenure leading the Federal Emergency Management Agency
www.washingtonpost.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:15 PM
The FEMA director so well qualified that he was apparently surprised to learn that hurricanes have a season.
Maybe next time they could appoint somebody who understands disasters, instead of somebody who is one.
Maybe next time they could appoint somebody who understands disasters, instead of somebody who is one.
Gift article. Terrifying, devastating reporting on the Texas flood tragedy.
“In our minds, the cabins were built on high ground”…”even after a 2011 FEMA map placed most of the cabins within a 100-year flood zone”—a map the camp’s owners successfully contested.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
“In our minds, the cabins were built on high ground”…”even after a 2011 FEMA map placed most of the cabins within a 100-year flood zone”—a map the camp’s owners successfully contested.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Swept Away (Gift Article)
Never-before-published videos, data from smart devices, a crash report and the first interview that Camp Mystic's owners have granted since the July 4 disaster offer the most detailed account yet.
www.nytimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Gift article. Terrifying, devastating reporting on the Texas flood tragedy.
“In our minds, the cabins were built on high ground”…”even after a 2011 FEMA map placed most of the cabins within a 100-year flood zone”—a map the camp’s owners successfully contested.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
“In our minds, the cabins were built on high ground”…”even after a 2011 FEMA map placed most of the cabins within a 100-year flood zone”—a map the camp’s owners successfully contested.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Seeing humans “not as commanders of the natural world but as kin”?
“Even the idea of granting the Great Salt Lake the right not to be sucked dry by irrigators was so threatening to Utah legislators that they passed a law preventing personhood from being granted to any plant, animal or ecosystem.”
“Even the idea of granting the Great Salt Lake the right not to be sucked dry by irrigators was so threatening to Utah legislators that they passed a law preventing personhood from being granted to any plant, animal or ecosystem.”
The last frontier of empathy: why we still struggle to see ourselves as animals | Megan Mayhew Bergman
The last frontier of empathy: why we still struggle to see ourselves as animals | Megan Mayhew Bergman
Champions of exceptionalism say humans hold a unique moral status. Yet there’s only one species recklessly destroying the planet it needs to survive
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Seeing humans “not as commanders of the natural world but as kin”?
“Even the idea of granting the Great Salt Lake the right not to be sucked dry by irrigators was so threatening to Utah legislators that they passed a law preventing personhood from being granted to any plant, animal or ecosystem.”
“Even the idea of granting the Great Salt Lake the right not to be sucked dry by irrigators was so threatening to Utah legislators that they passed a law preventing personhood from being granted to any plant, animal or ecosystem.”
Once I was in Exposition Park when a big flock of these parrots flew in to roost in the trees above me. Their colors were so bright, and their chatter absolutely deafening. I’ve never forgotten it.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
These parrots came to Los Angeles as pets – then went wild. Now scientists are unlocking their mysteries
Once escapees from the pet trade, Los Angeles’s feral parrots have become a vibrant part of city life, and could even aid conservation in their native homelands
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Once I was in Exposition Park when a big flock of these parrots flew in to roost in the trees above me. Their colors were so bright, and their chatter absolutely deafening. I’ve never forgotten it.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
“Something always goes wrong in a fire.”
A vast understatement after two catastrophic fires, both featuring failures of communication within & between agencies, lethal public warnings failures, and a disastrous choice to leave a fire site while it was still hot.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
A vast understatement after two catastrophic fires, both featuring failures of communication within & between agencies, lethal public warnings failures, and a disastrous choice to leave a fire site while it was still hot.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Scrutiny grows over LA fire origins after bombshell report: ‘Our Pearl Harbor moment’
Reports that fire crews were ordered to leave original site of blaze prompt tough questions for city and LAFD leaders
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:06 PM
“Something always goes wrong in a fire.”
A vast understatement after two catastrophic fires, both featuring failures of communication within & between agencies, lethal public warnings failures, and a disastrous choice to leave a fire site while it was still hot.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
A vast understatement after two catastrophic fires, both featuring failures of communication within & between agencies, lethal public warnings failures, and a disastrous choice to leave a fire site while it was still hot.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
After disasters, investors benefit & residents lose: “Altadena has been flooded by investors…of the 289 properties that have been sold, 168 were bought by limited liability investors and private equity firms, as opposed to 93 purchased by individuals.”
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
In Altadena, a woman is racing to buy land for her business that burned, before developers get it
Shelene Hearring has until Nov. 25 to raise $600,000 so she can purchase property in Altadena she needs to rebuild her martial arts business.
www.latimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:31 PM
After disasters, investors benefit & residents lose: “Altadena has been flooded by investors…of the 289 properties that have been sold, 168 were bought by limited liability investors and private equity firms, as opposed to 93 purchased by individuals.”
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
“The storm hit rural Jamaica hardest – people who are poorest, least protected, and historically marginalised. The same communities shaped by slavery, colonial extraction, and racialised policies are now on the frontline of climate disaster.”
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...
Hurricane Melissa a ‘real-time case study’ of colonialism’s legacies
Destruction in Jamaica shows why climate justice cannot be separated from reparatory justice, campaigners say
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 10:24 PM
“The storm hit rural Jamaica hardest – people who are poorest, least protected, and historically marginalised. The same communities shaped by slavery, colonial extraction, and racialised policies are now on the frontline of climate disaster.”
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...
Americans think this desk is named for the ideal: “resolute.” Nope. The HMS Resolute went north to find the Erebus and Terror, the lost ships of the Arctic Franklin Expedition. American whalers found it, and Victoria gifted us a desk scavenged from a rescue ship lost seeking a doomed expedition.
November 14, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Americans think this desk is named for the ideal: “resolute.” Nope. The HMS Resolute went north to find the Erebus and Terror, the lost ships of the Arctic Franklin Expedition. American whalers found it, and Victoria gifted us a desk scavenged from a rescue ship lost seeking a doomed expedition.
“By combining…their concerns with our flood and wind predictions, we can create maps and reports that show where the big risks are in real time…All of that work stopped overnight.”
Vital research canceled so aspiring trillionaires get tax cuts instead. Gift article.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/c...
Vital research canceled so aspiring trillionaires get tax cuts instead. Gift article.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/c...
He Helped Cities Anticipate Damage From Storms
www.nytimes.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:46 PM
“By combining…their concerns with our flood and wind predictions, we can create maps and reports that show where the big risks are in real time…All of that work stopped overnight.”
Vital research canceled so aspiring trillionaires get tax cuts instead. Gift article.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/c...
Vital research canceled so aspiring trillionaires get tax cuts instead. Gift article.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/c...
“When an ecosystem is so ingrained in your psyche, so essential to your culture and so central to the stories you tell about your reason for being, you have no choice but to safeguard it.”
www.latimes.com/environment/...
www.latimes.com/environment/...
Five Native tribes are coming together to protect a California cultural landscape
A coalition of five California desert tribes will co-manage the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument.
www.latimes.com
November 12, 2025 at 10:47 PM
“When an ecosystem is so ingrained in your psyche, so essential to your culture and so central to the stories you tell about your reason for being, you have no choice but to safeguard it.”
www.latimes.com/environment/...
www.latimes.com/environment/...
It’s upper basin states Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico against the lower basin – California, Arizona, and Nevada. “They had to reach an agreement that almost by definition is going to result in hardship to some of those water users.”
Thus no agreement.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Thus no agreement.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Western US states fail to agree on plan to manage Colorado River before federal deadline
Stakeholders have spent months ironing out disagreements over how to distribute water from the sprawling basin
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM
It’s upper basin states Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico against the lower basin – California, Arizona, and Nevada. “They had to reach an agreement that almost by definition is going to result in hardship to some of those water users.”
Thus no agreement.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Thus no agreement.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Lawrence Culver
In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
November 11, 2025 at 1:50 AM
In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.
The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.
Why?
It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
Fascinating read about Arctic art history and the panoramic paintings popular in empires and settler societies trying to comprehend newly acquired or coveted territory, and the long fascination with the Arctic, like the Arctic expedition in Frankenstein, published a year before this painting.
Today we have "Translating the Arctic, ca. 1819" by Oliver Aas
This is the sixth post in Part V of the Visual Cultures of the Circumpolar North series edited by @issygapp.bsky.social and guest edited by @sarahmpicks.bsky.social
niche-canada.org/2025/11/10/t...
#envhist #arctic #envhum
This is the sixth post in Part V of the Visual Cultures of the Circumpolar North series edited by @issygapp.bsky.social and guest edited by @sarahmpicks.bsky.social
niche-canada.org/2025/11/10/t...
#envhist #arctic #envhum
Translating the Arctic, ca. 1819
Henry Aston Barker's 1819 Arctic panorama introduced immersive Arctic imagery to Britain, blending exploration, art, and translation to shape public understanding and imagination.
niche-canada.org
November 11, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Fascinating read about Arctic art history and the panoramic paintings popular in empires and settler societies trying to comprehend newly acquired or coveted territory, and the long fascination with the Arctic, like the Arctic expedition in Frankenstein, published a year before this painting.