The NJ Dept of Env Protection just realized its first-ever study of #PFAS levels in NJ soils Some key takeaways: (1) PFAS concentrations were found to be highest around the #I-95 corridor btw #Philly and #NYC, but much of the state's soils are laden w PFAS #chemicals dep.nj.gov/srp/research/ 1/3

This episode comes out just as @oceanconservancy.org is holding the 40th #InternationalCoastalCleanup in a little more than a week 🙌 Find out about how Judie Neilson, the godmother of the citizen science cleanup movement, moved heaven and earth to bring the spotlight on ocean plastic pollution 🥤🏖️

The sky was on fire tonight

They are shutting down the hearing without letting everyone speak. NJ DEP disabled all our mics again to prevent us from complaining. I waited 4 hours for nothing. This process has been a farce from Day 1. I hope the #NJDEP has a spine and protects NJ by denying all permits #StopNESE

#STOPNESE actionnetwork.org/letters/b244...

#SilentSunday #Photography

Just registered to see and hear my all-time favorite NBC news anchor and journalist speak at Yale! #AnnCurry #Yale #PoynterFellowship #journalism #event poynter.yale.edu/events/2025-...

The MSNBC commentator saying that most political violence has historically come from the left just once again showed how we suffer from failing to learn history. Lynching, pogroms, race riots, the political violence that ended Reconstruction, and against the Civil Rights Movement. Come on.

NATO has officially invoked Article 4 at Poland’s request following the Russian drone incursion. This is significant.

Has the NYT ever wondered what the very poor people of NYC think about anything?

"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?" A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons. Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.

Happy #MapMonday! How much did each metro area depend on immigration for growth last year, and which ones will therefore feel the effects of the recent slowdown most acutely? Find out in the interactive map in my new @harvard-jchs.bsky.social blog post: www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/metro-a....

*UPDATE* This early morning I spotted a baby seagull ambling around my skylight, but I was not able to pry myself up in time to get a photo. It was a fuzzy little ball of fur with giant eyes. Not very stable. Will it make an appearance tmrw morning? We'll have to wait and see... #seagulls #nesting

My sister got married this past weekend to her college sweetheart (ten-year-old rabbit in tow!) Hats off to my sister who did all the wedding decorations and graphics...! 😍 💍

excited to share the call for the workshop EXTRACTIVE NATURES / NATURES OF EXTRACTION happening at @uobrisceh.bsky.social on 6-7 Nov 2025, 
made possible by the @britishacademy.bsky.social deadline: 10 September! full call below ⤵ #envhist #envhum

Really enjoyed learning from this excellent panel! #energyhistory #architecturalhistory #landscapehistory #socialhistory #heat #cold #climate #envhist #ESEH2025

I loved this part of the recent #ESEH2025! #swimming #envhist #historians #cold #water #rivers #Uppsala #Sweden

Thank you so much @eseh.bsky.social & local organisers @uu.se for yet another fabulous conference. Seeing long-time friends, making new ones, listening to great papers, being part of a lovely panel & producing a pop-up exhibition has been an absolute blast. See you all soon. 🤗 #ESEH2025 #EnvHist

Franklin didn’t just invent a stove—he invented five. Each one was designed to conserve fuel and control smoke. His final models in Europe? Built to burn coal cleaner. Sound familiar? 📻 Listen to @joycechaplin.bsky.social‬ break it down: benfranklinsworld.com/412 #EnergyHistory #History

On the topic of #plastics, I can flag two very recent (2025) publications by @historiamagoria.bsky.social and myself: ✅ Jess Van Horrsen's article on astroturf: muse.jhu.edu/article/956852 ✅ and mine on ocean plastic pollution: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.... #envhist

Many thanks to @elsadevienne.bsky.social for organizing us! #ESEH2025 #plastics #history

This morning in Uppsala, Sweden, we are discussing environmental histories of plastics! Delighted to be part of it! #ESEH2025 🌍

Currently #listening from my window to the faint hum of traffic from #I-95 on the horizon, sounds of cars passing below on the street, and miraculously, #crickets near the Northeast corridor tracks, playing their August chorus. It's quieter than usual outside. Cheers to summer (& the insects).

Yesterday one #seagull kept coming to roost on my apt skylight. Today, early morning, there were two. So much for sleeping in beyond 6am! Just now, the one brought a metal nail to rat-a-tat on the window as if to get me up from writing. Looks like they're playing catch. Proof #birds really do play!

Impeccable color theory & texture— Makes me want to get back to painting!

It's built right through a marsh... I hope everyone's okay. #NJTurnpike #NJFloods #FlashFlood #NewJerseyMeadowlands #Newark #Elizabeth #Linden #climatechange

I'm #writing a para. on the cold, snowy winter of 1791-92 in the Middle Atlantic US—& on this still rather hot week & amidst everything else—it's oddly, cooling and comforting.❄️ I also really enjoyed #reading (for style & Texas revolution background) Alice Baumgartner's *South to Freedom* yesterday!

Zohran Mamdani’s win has inspired over 3400 young people to raise their hands to run for office just since Tuesday. It’s now @runforsomething.net’s biggest candidate recruitment moment since the election. A new generation of leaders is here.

I just read her last post, which she wrote in hospice care, here. Inspirational. May she rest in peace. helendecruz.substack.com/p/cant-take-...

(2/2) We extend our condolences to their loved ones, they will be deeply missed. leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2025/06...

Finally an uplifting headline! @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social wins NYC mayoral primary. Just as I was starting to sing Les Miserables "One Day More" before swallowing each day's news... www.theguardian.com/us-news/live... "One Day More" ! www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7GP...

Delaware estuary now under pressure from Trump administration Critics fear recent vote by Delaware River Basin Commission signals environmental protections will be dismantled

Bombing for peace is like burning books to promote literacy.

If you want a space to write about this order to wipe erase history at the NPS, our Tracking the Effects: Environmental History and the Current United States Federal Administration series is accepting submissions on a rolling basis. niche-canada.org/2025/04/11/c... #envhist #parkhistory #NPS

Lyrics for today: "Father, father /We don't need to escalate /You see, #war is not the answer /For only love can conquer hate /You know we've got to find a way /To bring some lovin' here today /Picket lines & picket signs /Don't punish me with brutality /Talk to me /So you can see /What's goin' on."

So the Senate Reconciliation Bill is basically privatizing the American West. www.wilderness.org/articles/med... wilderness.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant...

Can’t possibly imagine why the chemical industry would want this federal agency to go away.

I live in Taos. Zoom in to find Taos, NM on this map. Note how they are selling public land on all sides of us. Now imagine your watershed comes from those mountains. Your wildfire risk mitigation, on all sides, comes from federal management of those lands they now want to privatize.

From the Wilderness Society: “Under-resourced state & local governments [will] lose open bidding wars to…commercial interests…Tribal Nations [are not given] the right of first refusal to bid on lands, even for areas that are a part of their traditional homelands or contain sacred sites.”

"It also fails to give sovereign Tribal Nations the right of first refusal to bid on lands, even for areas that are a part of their traditional homelands or contain sacred sites." #LANDBACK #stoptheSENRbill #publiclands This is an affront to #NativeAmerican tribal nations and the rule of law.

So many awful things happening right now, you might have missed this one. Nearly half of public lands will be sold if this passes. It would badly transform the US West.

Thinking of @maxrichtermusic.bsky.social 's 2003 Iraq war protest album today, #TheBlueNotebooks & repeating peace, peace, peace as a mantra. Where are the protests on the plausible US attack on Iran? The demand "Stop Bombing #Iran – Stop Arming #Israel" needs to be taken up in all American cities.

A new study shows that music therapy is as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy at helping cancer patients and survivors heal emotionally.

"To turn to A.I. for structure [and historical writing] seems less like a cheat than a deprivation, like enlisting someone to eat your hot fudge sundae for you.” - Stacy Schiff #NYT #AI

Some illuminating #debates (and healthy skepticism) in the NYT comments section right now on the (ir)relevance of AI to the historian's craft. #history #writing #AI #A.I.tech #NYT "A.I. Is Poised to Rewrite History" www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/m... And zingers... >>>

“As numbers of pollinators collapse, Janzen now sees flowers failing to bloom in the forest he has monitored for so long.” Pollinator collapse is occurring rapidly now not only because of pesticides, but because of increased aridity & lack of water, which insects need to survive🐞🪰🦟🦋 #climatechange

Great story by Bobby Magill: The Trump admin seeks to shrink the NPS budget by transferring battlefields, seashores and other "lesser" national park sites to states. Unsurprisingly, cash-strapped states aren't thrilled about it. Gift link:

LA roads contributed to climate change in the way they’ve required the drying-out of millions of cubic-feet of soil—soil that, were it still wet, would do much to moderate the wildfire events. Using federal flood control funding, the USACE confined the LA River’s natural flow into a concrete coffin.

Thanks for including my piece, @americanstudier.bsky.social ! #ScholarSunday