Gregory T Cushman
@guanoguy.bsky.social
Global environmental historian; Pacific World & Andean ethnohistorian; historian of climate & environmental sciences; scholar of all things foul and ugly, all creatures short and squat--at the University of Arizona
Pinned
ECOCIDE IS OFFICIALLY DEAD!!! The latest issue of the American Historical Review includes our massive article on Easter Island. It's part of a special issue on Histories of Resilience, with several articles focused on environmental history, Indigenous peoples, and the Global South. #envhist #histsci
New disease alert! The gods of irony were working overtime when they created a potentially deadly allergy to Texas BBQ caused by the Lone Star tick. The Evil Eye of Texas is upon you.
November 20, 2025 at 2:55 PM
New disease alert! The gods of irony were working overtime when they created a potentially deadly allergy to Texas BBQ caused by the Lone Star tick. The Evil Eye of Texas is upon you.
Reposted by Gregory T Cushman
#WorldToiletDay 🚽
The Latrines at Housesteads Roman Fort (Vercovicium) in Great Britain. They included wooden seats along the sides, set over a deep channel. A smaller channel in the centre of the building was used for washing sponges.
followinghadrian.com/2013/05/09/h...
The Latrines at Housesteads Roman Fort (Vercovicium) in Great Britain. They included wooden seats along the sides, set over a deep channel. A smaller channel in the centre of the building was used for washing sponges.
followinghadrian.com/2013/05/09/h...
November 19, 2025 at 2:58 PM
#WorldToiletDay 🚽
The Latrines at Housesteads Roman Fort (Vercovicium) in Great Britain. They included wooden seats along the sides, set over a deep channel. A smaller channel in the centre of the building was used for washing sponges.
followinghadrian.com/2013/05/09/h...
The Latrines at Housesteads Roman Fort (Vercovicium) in Great Britain. They included wooden seats along the sides, set over a deep channel. A smaller channel in the centre of the building was used for washing sponges.
followinghadrian.com/2013/05/09/h...
Caves often stink, but this was the wrong kind of guano.
For generations, Horse Cave, Kentucky, smelled awful. Miles of caverns and waterways underneath the small town brimmed with sewage that sent a putrid stench up from the depths and across downtown. Then came an audacious vision, a bit of money and a lot of grit. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/c...
September 2, 2025 at 5:20 AM
Caves often stink, but this was the wrong kind of guano.
Reposted by Gregory T Cushman
Cooperation between ecologists and historians has allowed a robust reconstruction of the historical introduction of the Italian crayfish, Austropotamobius fulcisianus, to Spain in the late-16th century
@ebdonana.bsky.social @um.es
New OA paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@ebdonana.bsky.social @um.es
New OA paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
September 1, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Cooperation between ecologists and historians has allowed a robust reconstruction of the historical introduction of the Italian crayfish, Austropotamobius fulcisianus, to Spain in the late-16th century
@ebdonana.bsky.social @um.es
New OA paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@ebdonana.bsky.social @um.es
New OA paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Gregory T Cushman
Hey #Botany2025 The Palm Springs Art Museum is incredible! Do go if you can (note it's closed M, T, W.) Here is artist Karen Kitchel's work American Grasslands: Prairie, Pasture, Crop, and Lawn #palmspringsart
July 25, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Hey #Botany2025 The Palm Springs Art Museum is incredible! Do go if you can (note it's closed M, T, W.) Here is artist Karen Kitchel's work American Grasslands: Prairie, Pasture, Crop, and Lawn #palmspringsart
I've been writing about 19th c epidemics in the Pacific. A common, deadly symptom of severe measles infections is unstoppable diarrhea (dysentery). Maybe get your kids vaxxed?
July 19, 2025 at 5:58 PM
I've been writing about 19th c epidemics in the Pacific. A common, deadly symptom of severe measles infections is unstoppable diarrhea (dysentery). Maybe get your kids vaxxed?
Trump's theatrical military deployment to Los Angeles will cost at least $134 million according to Pentagon officials. That's almost the same amount the NEH budgeted for all scholarly projects and state grants in the humanities in 2024 ($142 million) in our whole damned country.
June 10, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Trump's theatrical military deployment to Los Angeles will cost at least $134 million according to Pentagon officials. That's almost the same amount the NEH budgeted for all scholarly projects and state grants in the humanities in 2024 ($142 million) in our whole damned country.
Peru knows this problem too well. Check out Mark Carey's book on the subject. AI doesnt seem to know it (or for that matter, anything about Peru), so zero cheaters on this unit of my history of disaster class!
"The most recent report into the condition of #Switzerland's glaciers suggested they could all be gone within a century...
the glacier thaw will continue to accelerate, increasing the risk of flooding and landslides, and threatening more communities like #Blatten"
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
the glacier thaw will continue to accelerate, increasing the risk of flooding and landslides, and threatening more communities like #Blatten"
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Swiss glacier collapse buries most of village of Blatten - BBC News
Many homes in Blatten have been flattened after a large chunk of the Birch glacier fell on to the village.
www.bbc.co.uk
May 28, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Peru knows this problem too well. Check out Mark Carey's book on the subject. AI doesnt seem to know it (or for that matter, anything about Peru), so zero cheaters on this unit of my history of disaster class!
Starlink is trash--literal trash. It will slowly rain huge amounts of pollution into the upper atmosphere, which will filter down to the stratosphere, where they could cause the ozone hole to come back. And for what gain?
Except Elon Musk is pumping the upper atmosphere with hundreds of tons of aluminum oxide. Which, unlike halocarbons, aren’t consumed by the process of destroying ozone. And will longer for decades while they do their damage.
www.space.com/megaconstell...
www.space.com/megaconstell...
Satellite megaconstellations threaten ozone layer recovery, study confirms
Within the next 30 years, concentrations of ozone-damaging aluminum oxides in the atmosphere could increase by 650%.
www.space.com
May 26, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Starlink is trash--literal trash. It will slowly rain huge amounts of pollution into the upper atmosphere, which will filter down to the stratosphere, where they could cause the ozone hole to come back. And for what gain?
Reposted by Gregory T Cushman
The AI book list and general enshittification reminded me that I've been credited as blurbing hundreds of books I never have, including books by Patti Smith, Amy Tan, Sidney Sheldon, Joyce Maynard, and Elmore Leonard? And I can't get these fake blurbs taken off publisher and bookstore websites?
May 20, 2025 at 3:49 PM
The AI book list and general enshittification reminded me that I've been credited as blurbing hundreds of books I never have, including books by Patti Smith, Amy Tan, Sidney Sheldon, Joyce Maynard, and Elmore Leonard? And I can't get these fake blurbs taken off publisher and bookstore websites?
Sure, let's study the efficacy of covid vaccine boosters! But don't ban them until *after* that lack is scientifically demonstrated. Exhibit n+1 that this administration hates personal freedom, hates evidence, hates truth, hates ME.
The FDA will permit Covid vaccines only for adults over 65 and those with certain medical conditions in the fall, according to new regulatory standards.
F.D.A. Poised to Restrict Access to Covid Vaccines
www.nytimes.com
May 20, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Sure, let's study the efficacy of covid vaccine boosters! But don't ban them until *after* that lack is scientifically demonstrated. Exhibit n+1 that this administration hates personal freedom, hates evidence, hates truth, hates ME.
Reposted by Gregory T Cushman
Reposted by Gregory T Cushman
Could this be the biggest climate story of the year?
For the first time on record, China's emissions are falling due to clean energy growth, not slow power demand
Full analysis + outlook by Lauri Myllyvirta:
www.carbonbrief.org/...
1/7
For the first time on record, China's emissions are falling due to clean energy growth, not slow power demand
Full analysis + outlook by Lauri Myllyvirta:
www.carbonbrief.org/...
1/7
May 15, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Could this be the biggest climate story of the year?
For the first time on record, China's emissions are falling due to clean energy growth, not slow power demand
Full analysis + outlook by Lauri Myllyvirta:
www.carbonbrief.org/...
1/7
For the first time on record, China's emissions are falling due to clean energy growth, not slow power demand
Full analysis + outlook by Lauri Myllyvirta:
www.carbonbrief.org/...
1/7
This is bad. Hopefully this massive, invaluable archive will continue to have a host, but it won't have anything new added to it. This was the single most valuable online resource my history majors used for producing their senior capstone papers this semester, themselves an endangered species
Some sad confirmation from @bcgl.bsky.social while I was at UW last week—the National Digital Newspaper Program—which builds Chronicling America—has been shut down
Historical newspapers are probably the archival material most used by the general public—for genealogy, local history—it’s such a loss
Historical newspapers are probably the archival material most used by the general public—for genealogy, local history—it’s such a loss
About this Collection | Chronicling America | Digital Collections | Library of Congress
Search America's Historic Newspaper Pages through 1963 Please Note: The Library of Congress has transitioned the longstanding Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers website to this new digi...
www.loc.gov
May 13, 2025 at 1:56 AM
This is bad. Hopefully this massive, invaluable archive will continue to have a host, but it won't have anything new added to it. This was the single most valuable online resource my history majors used for producing their senior capstone papers this semester, themselves an endangered species
Reposted by Gregory T Cushman
A fantastic opportunity for postdocs working in Pacific History:
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Pacific History
Full time, fixed term for 3 years Opportunity for research in Pacific history in the Discipline of History First Nations and Pacific Nations candidates strongly encouraged to apply Academic Level A6-8...
usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com
May 12, 2025 at 3:14 AM
A fantastic opportunity for postdocs working in Pacific History:
For £79, an AI bot in the guise of Agatha Christie will "teach" you how to write. U of Illinois Business School is implementing these avatar bots in online classes in the guise of business faculty. This is the current end game of my job and profession and I'm pissed. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/w...
Agatha Christie, Who Died in 1976, Will See You in Class
www.nytimes.com
May 8, 2025 at 6:04 AM
For £79, an AI bot in the guise of Agatha Christie will "teach" you how to write. U of Illinois Business School is implementing these avatar bots in online classes in the guise of business faculty. This is the current end game of my job and profession and I'm pissed. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/w...
Reposted by Gregory T Cushman
AHA executive director @jgrossman.bsky.social said about the lawsuit: “The NEH leverages its very small budget to support work in nearly every venue where Americans engage with the humanities. . . . It makes no sense to eviscerate the agency that helps all Americans.”
The AHA, along with the ACLS and the MLA, have filed a lawsuit to restore the programming and institutional integrity that have been stripped away from the NEH. Announcement and PDF of filing in district court are here: www.historians.org/news/america...
American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association, and Modern Language Association File Lawsuit Alleging Illegal Dismantling of National Endowment for the Humanities - AHA
Lawsuit aims to reinstate NEH grant programs, divisions, and staff. For Immediate Release / May 1, 2025 (New York, NY) — The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the American Historical Assoc...
www.historians.org
May 1, 2025 at 9:01 PM
AHA executive director @jgrossman.bsky.social said about the lawsuit: “The NEH leverages its very small budget to support work in nearly every venue where Americans engage with the humanities. . . . It makes no sense to eviscerate the agency that helps all Americans.”
Reposted by Gregory T Cushman
I just finished this by @siobhanangus.bsky.social, please all read it so we can talk about it. It's insightful and thought provoking and hits many of my interests (material-led histories of media, science, exploration and extraction). Now mentally curating the exhibition of the book...
April 17, 2025 at 8:44 PM
I just finished this by @siobhanangus.bsky.social, please all read it so we can talk about it. It's insightful and thought provoking and hits many of my interests (material-led histories of media, science, exploration and extraction). Now mentally curating the exhibition of the book...
If you've heard of the Great Acceleration, here's a view of its current endgame
April 30, 2025 at 5:34 PM
If you've heard of the Great Acceleration, here's a view of its current endgame
Guanorific!
Autocorrect has become our worst enema.
April 29, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Guanorific!
The sixth National Climate Assessment has been axed. As I mentioned in my history of disaster class today, seems akin to burying one's head in the sands of Galveston Beach in early Sept 1900 #climatecrisis www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/c...
National Climate Assessment Authors Are Dismissed by Trump Administration (Gift Article)
The Trump administration told researchers it was “releasing” them from their roles. It puts the future of the assessment, which is required by Congress, in doubt.
www.nytimes.com
April 29, 2025 at 8:11 AM
The sixth National Climate Assessment has been axed. As I mentioned in my history of disaster class today, seems akin to burying one's head in the sands of Galveston Beach in early Sept 1900 #climatecrisis www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/c...
A grim trend--natural carbon sinks are turning into greenhouse gas emitters, in this case Finland's boreal forests, also in parts of Amazonia though not Australia (see comments)
Probably the best example of a collapse in the uptake of carbon dioxide on land (LULUCF) is in Finland.
A significant and sustained carbon sink turned into a source in 10 years.
robbieandrew.github.io/country/?cou...
1/
A significant and sustained carbon sink turned into a source in 10 years.
robbieandrew.github.io/country/?cou...
1/
April 29, 2025 at 7:50 AM
A grim trend--natural carbon sinks are turning into greenhouse gas emitters, in this case Finland's boreal forests, also in parts of Amazonia though not Australia (see comments)