Lawrence Culver
@lawrencecphd.bsky.social
Historian of environment/climate/disaster/cities/culture. Also public history & urban/enviro/recreation public policy. UCLA Bruin.
Book: The Frontier of Leisure: SoCal and the Shaping of Modern America; writing on climate & history in US & North America.
Book: The Frontier of Leisure: SoCal and the Shaping of Modern America; writing on climate & history in US & North America.
Gift article.
My Rustbelt-in-the-Sunbelt hometown of Birmingham and its suburb Bessemer have declined for decades. AL bent over backwards for developers and ignored environmental concerns. But even here, a data center the size of 18 Walmarts gives politicians pause.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/u...
My Rustbelt-in-the-Sunbelt hometown of Birmingham and its suburb Bessemer have declined for decades. AL bent over backwards for developers and ignored environmental concerns. But even here, a data center the size of 18 Walmarts gives politicians pause.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/u...
Trump Pushes A.I. Data Centers, but the G.O.P. Is Cool to One in Alabama
www.nytimes.com
January 25, 2026 at 7:10 PM
Gift article.
My Rustbelt-in-the-Sunbelt hometown of Birmingham and its suburb Bessemer have declined for decades. AL bent over backwards for developers and ignored environmental concerns. But even here, a data center the size of 18 Walmarts gives politicians pause.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/u...
My Rustbelt-in-the-Sunbelt hometown of Birmingham and its suburb Bessemer have declined for decades. AL bent over backwards for developers and ignored environmental concerns. But even here, a data center the size of 18 Walmarts gives politicians pause.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/u...
Gift article.
George Washington owned slaves?
Labor in the textile mills of New England was hard?
Climate change is real?
The National Park Service doesn’t think Americans can handle historical reality. Seems dubious. But the people running the NPS certainly can’t.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/c...
George Washington owned slaves?
Labor in the textile mills of New England was hard?
Climate change is real?
The National Park Service doesn’t think Americans can handle historical reality. Seems dubious. But the people running the NPS certainly can’t.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/c...
How the National Park Service Is Deleting American History
www.nytimes.com
January 25, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Gift article.
George Washington owned slaves?
Labor in the textile mills of New England was hard?
Climate change is real?
The National Park Service doesn’t think Americans can handle historical reality. Seems dubious. But the people running the NPS certainly can’t.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/c...
George Washington owned slaves?
Labor in the textile mills of New England was hard?
Climate change is real?
The National Park Service doesn’t think Americans can handle historical reality. Seems dubious. But the people running the NPS certainly can’t.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/c...
Reposted by Lawrence Culver
This is who the Whittier neighborhood in Minneapolis is named for
January 24, 2026 at 10:47 PM
This is who the Whittier neighborhood in Minneapolis is named for
“There has been very little snow in low-elevation and mid-elevation areas this winter — a symptom of climate change, as warmer temperatures push average snowlines higher….’That is the classic global warming mountain snowpack signature.’”
www.latimes.com/environment/...
www.latimes.com/environment/...
Rain, not snow: Extraordinary warmth leaves mountains less snowy across the West
The snowpack this winter is smaller than average in California's Sierra Nevada as well as the Rocky Mountains. The lack of snow reflects record warmth.
www.latimes.com
January 24, 2026 at 4:13 PM
“There has been very little snow in low-elevation and mid-elevation areas this winter — a symptom of climate change, as warmer temperatures push average snowlines higher….’That is the classic global warming mountain snowpack signature.’”
www.latimes.com/environment/...
www.latimes.com/environment/...
“Research published last year found that the stretching of the polar vortex…is contributing to extreme weather in the US and that global heating, counterintuitively, could be playing a role in accelerating this process.”
Trump says the big US winter storm is proof of climate hoax – here’s why he’s wrong
Trump says the big US winter storm is proof of climate hoax – here’s why he’s wrong
US president asks ‘whatever happened to global warming?’ Well, it could be making our winter storms worse
www.theguardian.com
January 23, 2026 at 9:11 PM
“Research published last year found that the stretching of the polar vortex…is contributing to extreme weather in the US and that global heating, counterintuitively, could be playing a role in accelerating this process.”
In Altadena, the Palisades, and other recent fire disasters, there was one thing many fire victims had in common: they were unable to drive themselves out. In Katrina, there was no plan to help people without cars evacuate. With planning, public transit can literally be a lifesaver.
For folks working in transportation justice, evacuation, wildfire, and/or public health, please join us next Thursday Jan 29 for a free webinar about the evacuation of transit riders during the 2025 LA wildfires.
www.lewis.ucla.edu/event/prepar...
Study funded by @hazcenter.bsky.social & UCLA
www.lewis.ucla.edu/event/prepar...
Study funded by @hazcenter.bsky.social & UCLA
Preparing for the Future After the 2025 LA Fires: How did transit riders evacuate in 2025? - UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
www.lewis.ucla.edu
January 23, 2026 at 4:59 PM
In Altadena, the Palisades, and other recent fire disasters, there was one thing many fire victims had in common: they were unable to drive themselves out. In Katrina, there was no plan to help people without cars evacuate. With planning, public transit can literally be a lifesaver.
In addition to the photo below, the Philadelphia Inquirer article linked in this post link includes all the removed historical information panels:
bsky.app/profile/loga...
bsky.app/profile/loga...
Here's one of the panels that Trump just removed from the President's House site in Philadelphia. (I took this picture of it last March. A couple of weeks later I led a walking tour that included the site.) Does this information "disparage" the United States?
![MOUNT VERNON TO PHILADELPHIA:
A Path to Freedom-For Some
The nine enslaved men and women of the President's House were chosen by Washington to accompany him to Philadelphia. They were separated from their families back in Mount Vernon and rotated out of state regularly to prevent them from gaining freedom under Pennsylvania law.
CHARACTERS
Christopher Sheels, enslaved attendant to Washington
Hercules. enslaved cook
Richmond, Hercules' enslaved son
Giles, enslaved stable hand
Oney Judge, enslaved maid and seamstress to Martha
Austin, Ona's enslaved half brother, house servant
Paris. enslaved stable hand
Moll, enslaved maid to Martha
Joe Richardson, enslaved postillion for the presidential coach
[Floor plan]
SERVANTS' EATING HALL](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kok4aqdr3qnsj6ktfkq76kqz/bafkreibrargcgl4dng3rc2jltpsj32eaxyu7tgj3b6w36scpezni3ltm6m@jpeg)
January 23, 2026 at 3:54 AM
In addition to the photo below, the Philadelphia Inquirer article linked in this post link includes all the removed historical information panels:
bsky.app/profile/loga...
bsky.app/profile/loga...
Information about George Washington and slavery removed at the President’s House Site, Philadelphia.
Washington profited from slavery, but also worried about it, and what it portended for the future survival of the US.
**A slaveowner** could think about it more complexly than these people can.
Washington profited from slavery, but also worried about it, and what it portended for the future survival of the US.
**A slaveowner** could think about it more complexly than these people can.
January 23, 2026 at 12:17 AM
Information about George Washington and slavery removed at the President’s House Site, Philadelphia.
Washington profited from slavery, but also worried about it, and what it portended for the future survival of the US.
**A slaveowner** could think about it more complexly than these people can.
Washington profited from slavery, but also worried about it, and what it portended for the future survival of the US.
**A slaveowner** could think about it more complexly than these people can.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh
January 22, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh
“Allowing larger houses to be built on the island…would raise taxes, making it harder for Gullah Geechee people to continue living on Sapelo, and potentially changing the island’s cultural and environmental landscape forever.”
www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ja...
www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ja...
‘I ain’t goin nowhere’: Gullah Geechee people fight off developers with a historic referendum
A citizen referendum, only the second of its kind in Georgia history, seeks to block a zoning amendment
www.theguardian.com
January 22, 2026 at 7:24 PM
“Allowing larger houses to be built on the island…would raise taxes, making it harder for Gullah Geechee people to continue living on Sapelo, and potentially changing the island’s cultural and environmental landscape forever.”
www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ja...
www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ja...
The “database…directly linked carbon emissions from the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies to dozens of deadly heatwaves that otherwise would have been virtually impossible. [It attributed] trillions of dollars in economic losses related to extreme heat to individual fossil fuel companies.”
Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel firms, study shows
- Critics accuse leading firms of sabotaging climate action but say data increasingly being used to hold them to account
@influencemap.bsky.social
#climatecrisis
Story by me
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
- Critics accuse leading firms of sabotaging climate action but say data increasingly being used to hold them to account
@influencemap.bsky.social
#climatecrisis
Story by me
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel firms, study shows
Critics accuse leading firms of sabotaging climate action but say data increasingly being used to hold them to account
www.theguardian.com
January 21, 2026 at 4:40 PM
The “database…directly linked carbon emissions from the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies to dozens of deadly heatwaves that otherwise would have been virtually impossible. [It attributed] trillions of dollars in economic losses related to extreme heat to individual fossil fuel companies.”
Does Trump want Greenland because:
The Mercator projection makes it look big?
He can’t be a truly “great” US president until he takes land from Indigenous people?
Weird techbros want to make it a cryptostate?
Or (this one’s real)
He can stop some of the world’s most important climate science?
The Mercator projection makes it look big?
He can’t be a truly “great” US president until he takes land from Indigenous people?
Weird techbros want to make it a cryptostate?
Or (this one’s real)
He can stop some of the world’s most important climate science?
As world leaders, businesses and civil society gather in #Davos for the #WEF, here is a timely reminder why Greenland is indispensable to global #climate science 🧪
via: Prof Martin Siegert in @theconversation.com
theconversation.com/why-greenlan...
via: Prof Martin Siegert in @theconversation.com
theconversation.com/why-greenlan...
Why Greenland is indispensable to global climate science
With no Antarctica-style treaty to protect Greenland, a US takeover could mean scientists lose access.
theconversation.com
January 20, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Does Trump want Greenland because:
The Mercator projection makes it look big?
He can’t be a truly “great” US president until he takes land from Indigenous people?
Weird techbros want to make it a cryptostate?
Or (this one’s real)
He can stop some of the world’s most important climate science?
The Mercator projection makes it look big?
He can’t be a truly “great” US president until he takes land from Indigenous people?
Weird techbros want to make it a cryptostate?
Or (this one’s real)
He can stop some of the world’s most important climate science?
“Southern California plant and animal life has long been adapted to fire. Though, in their recovery they face new challenges including [invasive plants], climate change, repeated fires and the phenomenon of car exhaust unhelpfully fertilizing plants.”
laist.com/news/climate...
laist.com/news/climate...
The LA fires burned Angelenos' wild havens. A year later, nature is starting to recover
Only time will tell how completely nature recovers from the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires in January 2025. But the early signs are at least partially encouraging.
laist.com
January 20, 2026 at 7:07 PM
“Southern California plant and animal life has long been adapted to fire. Though, in their recovery they face new challenges including [invasive plants], climate change, repeated fires and the phenomenon of car exhaust unhelpfully fertilizing plants.”
laist.com/news/climate...
laist.com/news/climate...
Organizing session for 2026 conference of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association at UNLV, July 29-31.
Seeking perspectives on current and historical academic freedom issues at US universities, and efforts to control or restrict curriculum or faculty and student speech. 1/2
Seeking perspectives on current and historical academic freedom issues at US universities, and efforts to control or restrict curriculum or faculty and student speech. 1/2
January 19, 2026 at 9:49 PM
Organizing session for 2026 conference of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association at UNLV, July 29-31.
Seeking perspectives on current and historical academic freedom issues at US universities, and efforts to control or restrict curriculum or faculty and student speech. 1/2
Seeking perspectives on current and historical academic freedom issues at US universities, and efforts to control or restrict curriculum or faculty and student speech. 1/2
“Previous wildfires, like the 2023 Maui fire, have shown that disaster recovery exacerbates existing inequities, with spikes in housing prices, underinsurance and bureaucratic delays pushing survivors out of their communities… “climate gentrification.”
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
‘People saw dollar signs’: a year after devastating wildfires, an LA community is fighting displacement
As survivors face pressure to sell their land in Altadena, a historic Black community, experts say we’re witnessing ‘climate gentrification’
www.theguardian.com
January 18, 2026 at 4:35 PM
“Previous wildfires, like the 2023 Maui fire, have shown that disaster recovery exacerbates existing inequities, with spikes in housing prices, underinsurance and bureaucratic delays pushing survivors out of their communities… “climate gentrification.”
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
On the anniversary of his death, here’s one of my favorite remembrances of David Lynch—as an artist, as an Angeleno, and as someone whose work became part of so many people’s lives. Sadly, its author is no longer with us either.
kalebhorton.ghost.io/death-is-jus...
kalebhorton.ghost.io/death-is-jus...
Death Is Just A Change
David Lynch has gone on to whatever the next place is. I’m very sad about it; it came at a hard time for the city of Los Angeles, a place he dearly loved, and it’s hard not to think his change of cons...
kalebhorton.ghost.io
January 17, 2026 at 12:23 AM
On the anniversary of his death, here’s one of my favorite remembrances of David Lynch—as an artist, as an Angeleno, and as someone whose work became part of so many people’s lives. Sadly, its author is no longer with us either.
kalebhorton.ghost.io/death-is-jus...
kalebhorton.ghost.io/death-is-jus...
“And so silence becomes another negative feedback loop of climate change. Climate conversations…can help break the self-defeating cycle. If the media won’t do its job, then we all need to become environmental storytellers, each in our own way sharing tales of the climate changes we are witnessing.”
Climate Journalism ain't what it used to be ... as a 10-year-old time capsule I opened on New Year's Eve revealed.
Here's my inaugural column for @earthislandjournal.bsky.social, which I'll be writing monthly
www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...
Here's my inaugural column for @earthislandjournal.bsky.social, which I'll be writing monthly
www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...
A Time Capsule Reveals the Urgent Tone of Climate Journalism in the 2010s
What a 10-year-old time capsule reveals about the state of climate reporting.
www.earthisland.org
January 14, 2026 at 8:48 PM
“And so silence becomes another negative feedback loop of climate change. Climate conversations…can help break the self-defeating cycle. If the media won’t do its job, then we all need to become environmental storytellers, each in our own way sharing tales of the climate changes we are witnessing.”
Fascinating how political movements hostile to avoiding climate disaster are a result of the encroaching climate disaster’s increasing costs for voters.
And the corporations that say it’s too expensive to avoid climate change are perfectly happy to let it make things too expensive for you already.
And the corporations that say it’s too expensive to avoid climate change are perfectly happy to let it make things too expensive for you already.
Temperature changes alone cut US incomes by 12%, between 2000-2019, per a new study - on top of disaster and insurance losses.
Call it a stealth heat tax
Gift link to my column for @opinion.bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Call it a stealth heat tax
Gift link to my column for @opinion.bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
A Stealth Heat Tax Has Already Cost Americans $1 Trillion
A hotter planet is making life more expensive. There’s the big-ticket stuff, of course, like the property losses and higher insurance premiums that come with supercharged natural disasters. But a deep...
www.bloomberg.com
January 14, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Fascinating how political movements hostile to avoiding climate disaster are a result of the encroaching climate disaster’s increasing costs for voters.
And the corporations that say it’s too expensive to avoid climate change are perfectly happy to let it make things too expensive for you already.
And the corporations that say it’s too expensive to avoid climate change are perfectly happy to let it make things too expensive for you already.
In 2024, forests worldwide burned at a scale equal to the total area of England. In the last 24 years, an area the size of Mongolia burned, and in a warming world that rate is accelerating.
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
Mapped: how the world is losing its forests to wildfires
Wildfires now destroy twice as much tree cover per year as two decades ago – a crisis fuelled by climate change
www.theguardian.com
January 13, 2026 at 11:45 PM
In 2024, forests worldwide burned at a scale equal to the total area of England. In the last 24 years, an area the size of Mongolia burned, and in a warming world that rate is accelerating.
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
I hope this home is preserved in a way that allows the public to enjoy it. LA’s greatest architecture is mostly its houses, and Julius Shulman’s photography made this one an icon of LA, California, and the sunny technofuturist optimism of the postwar United States.
www.latimes.com/travel/story...
www.latimes.com/travel/story...
Iconic Stahl House, a Midcentury Modern stunner, up for sale
The Stahl House is selling for $25 million. The current owners say its tour program will continue for now.
www.latimes.com
January 13, 2026 at 6:20 PM
I hope this home is preserved in a way that allows the public to enjoy it. LA’s greatest architecture is mostly its houses, and Julius Shulman’s photography made this one an icon of LA, California, and the sunny technofuturist optimism of the postwar United States.
www.latimes.com/travel/story...
www.latimes.com/travel/story...
As a rule, nobody pays much attention to us historians. But when they do, it’s likely to be bad.
The White House says the Smithsonian Institution must submit materials about current and upcoming exhibitions and events for a review that will determine whether they express "improper ideology." n.pr/4583d8f
Today is the Smithsonian's deadline to give thousands of documents to the White House
The White House says the Smithsonian Institution must submit materials about current and upcoming exhibitions and events for a review that will determine whether they express "improper ideology."
n.pr
January 13, 2026 at 4:55 PM
As a rule, nobody pays much attention to us historians. But when they do, it’s likely to be bad.
Climate change-driven heat waves and urban heat islands pose dangers for humans, and dire peril for wildlife too, including thousands of bats killed by heat in a Melbourne park:
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Flying foxes die in their thousands in worst mass-mortality event since Australia’s black summer
Volunteers found thousands of dead bats at Melbourne’s Brimbank park, wildlife expert says
www.theguardian.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:55 AM
Climate change-driven heat waves and urban heat islands pose dangers for humans, and dire peril for wildlife too, including thousands of bats killed by heat in a Melbourne park:
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
My hometown river, even if it hasn’t been my geographic home in a long time, is the Cahaba.
January 13, 2026 at 12:33 AM
My hometown river, even if it hasn’t been my geographic home in a long time, is the Cahaba.
Reposted by Lawrence Culver
Gift article.
Just remember, the life and health of you and your loved ones is always less important than the money some company could be making, and having to calculate for your continued existence is a nuisance.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
Just remember, the life and health of you and your loved ones is always less important than the money some company could be making, and having to calculate for your continued existence is a nuisance.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution
www.nytimes.com
January 12, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Gift article.
Just remember, the life and health of you and your loved ones is always less important than the money some company could be making, and having to calculate for your continued existence is a nuisance.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
Just remember, the life and health of you and your loved ones is always less important than the money some company could be making, and having to calculate for your continued existence is a nuisance.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
Gift article.
Just remember, the life and health of you and your loved ones is always less important than the money some company could be making, and having to calculate for your continued existence is a nuisance.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
Just remember, the life and health of you and your loved ones is always less important than the money some company could be making, and having to calculate for your continued existence is a nuisance.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution
www.nytimes.com
January 12, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Gift article.
Just remember, the life and health of you and your loved ones is always less important than the money some company could be making, and having to calculate for your continued existence is a nuisance.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
Just remember, the life and health of you and your loved ones is always less important than the money some company could be making, and having to calculate for your continued existence is a nuisance.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...