NOTES

The page numbers for the notes that appeared in the print version of this title are not in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for the relevant passages documented or discussed.

The four narratives that form the backbone of this book—Okanogan County, Washington; St. Augustine, Florida, and Annapolis, Maryland; Newtok, Alaska; and Richmond, California—are based on a combination of field reporting and extensive interviews in these communities. The four essayistic chapters also rely heavily on in-person and phone interviews. Quotes, biographical information, and details of events that are not annotated in this section are drawn from personal communications. When quotes appear in reconstructed events, they are italicized—to signal that they are drawn from the past and from the memories of the people who were involved, which, like all memories, are sometimes inexact.

Front Epigraphs

I want you to act as you would: Greta Thunberg, “‘Our House Is on Fire’: Greta Thunberg, 16, Urges Leaders to Act on Climate,” Guardian, January 25, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/25/our-house-is-on-fire-greta-thunberg16-urges-leaders-to-act-on-climate.

Because we have not made our lives to fit: Wendell Berry, [“Because we have not made our lives to fit”] from This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems 1979–2012. Copyright © 1999 by Wendell Berry. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Counterpoint Press, counterpointpress.com.

But the ethereal and timeless power: Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams (New York: Bantam Books, 1986), 411.

Prologue

Home is “not a house for sale or a site for ‘development’”: Wendell Berry, The Art of Loading Brush: New Agrarian Writings (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2017), 6.

Not long ago, a group of high school science students collected tree moss in the valley: Bellamy Pailthorp, “In South Seattle, Teens Collect Moss to Help ID Air Quality,” KNKX Public Radio, June 29, 2020, https://www.knkx.org/news/2020-06-29/in-south-seattle-teens-collect-moss-to-help-id-air-quality; “Duwamish Valley Clean Air Program Moss Study Community Fact Sheet,” Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, accessed October 18, 2021, https://www.duwamishcleanup.org/moss-study.

In the summer of 2021, one in three Americans: Sarah Kaplan and Andrew Ba Tran, “Nearly 1 in 3 Americans Experienced a Weather Disaster This Summer,” Washington Post, September 4, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/09/04/climate-disaster-hurricane-ida/.

Elsewhere, the Italian island of Sicily: Gaia Pianigiani, “Sicily Registers Record-High Temperature as Heat Wave Sweeps Italian Island,” New York Times, August 12, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/world/europe/sicily-record-high-temperature-119-degrees.html.

Villagers on the Greek island of Evia: Lefteris Papadimas, “Greek Villagers Try to Save Homes as Fire Crews Brace for Winds Whipping Flames,” Reuters, August 10, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greek-villagers-try-save-homes-fire-crews-brace-winds-whipping-flames-2021-08-10/.

At the same time, a vicious drought hung over Angola: Kaula Nhongo, “Namibia Under Pressure from Angolan Migrants Fleeing Drought,” Bloomberg, October 7, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-07/namibia-under-pressure-from-angolan-migrants-fleeing-drought.

The warming of the planet: William V. Sweet, Radley Horton, Robert E. Kopp, Allegra N. LeGrande, and Anastasia Romanou, “Sea Level Rise,” in Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, vol. 1, ed. Donald J. Wuebbles, David W. Fahey, Kathy A. Hibbard, David J. Dokken, Brooke C. Stewart, and Thomas K. Maycock, U.S. Global Change Research Program, accessed October 19, 2021, https://science2017.globalchange.gov/chapter/12/.

Because of the emissions human societies have already sent: “Summary for Policymakers,” in Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis; Working Group I Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ed. Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Panmao Zhai, Anna Pirani, Sarah L. Connors, Clotilde Péan, Yang Chen, Leah Goldfarb, et al.

The word ecology originates from: ecology, n., Oxford English Dictionary Online, Oxford University Press, September 2021.

The word economy grows from the same root: economy, n., OED Online.

But an economy should be a means: “The Meaning of Home,” Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project, accessed October 19, 2021, https://movementgeneration.org/eco-means-home/.

Unruly has several meanings: unruly, n.4., OED Online.

Many cultures recount stories in which heroes: Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories (New York: Bloomsbury, 2005).

1: The Fire

Some of the reporting in chapters 1 and 7 also appeared in “For Forest Blazes Grown Wilder, an Alternative: The ‘Good Fire,’” my October 2021 article for Undark magazine.

home, n.: home, n.A.I. and home, n.A.I.1.a, OED Online.

home truth, n.: home truth, n., Merriam-Webster, accessed September 6, 2021, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/home%20truth.

the American public had first become aware of climate change: Philip Shabecoff, “Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate,” New York Times, June 24, 1988, https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/24/us/global-warming-has-begun-expert-tells-senate.html; Andrew C. Revkin, “Years Later, Climatologist Renews His Call for Action,” New York Times, June 23, 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/science/earth/23climate.html.

Scientists had predicted a possible crisis: Benjamin Franta, “On Its 100th Birthday in 1959, Edward Teller Warned the Oil Industry About Global Warming,” Guardian, January 1, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/01/on-its-hundredth-birthday-in-1959-edward-teller-warned-the-oil-industry-about-global-warming; Roger Revelle and Hans E. Suess, “Carbon Dioxide Exchange Between Atmosphere and Ocean and the Question of an Increase of Atmospheric CO₂ During the Past Decades,” Tellus 9, no. 1 (1957): 18–27, https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusa.v9i1.9075.

By 1992, the concentration of carbon dioxide: “Trends in Atmospheric Concentrations of CO₂ (Ppm), CH₄ (Ppb) and N₂O (Ppb), Between 1800 and 2017,” European Environment Agency, accessed October 19, 2021, https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/daviz/atmospheric-concentration-of-carbon-dioxide-5.

Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius is often credited: Ian Sample, “The Father of Climate Change,” Guardian, June 30, 2005, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/jun/30/climatechange.climatechangeenvironment2; Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson, eds., All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis (New York: Random House, 2021), xvii.

The planet had already warmed: “Global Temperature,” NASA, accessed October 19, 2021, https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature.

though some places, like the Arctic: J. Overpeck, K. Hughen, D. Hardy, R. Bradley, R. Case, M. Douglas, B. Finney, et al., “Arctic Environmental Change of the Last Four Centuries,” Science 278, no. 5341 (November 14, 1997): 1251–56, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.278.5341.1251.

In 1990 and 1992, the first reports: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change: The IPCC 1990 and 1992 Assessments, June 1992, https://www.ipcc.ch/report/climate-change-the-ipcc-1990-and-1992-assessments/.

Through her lake-sediment detective work, Susan’s doctoral dissertation: Susan J. Prichard, “Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Fire and Vegetation Change in Thunder Creek Watershed, North Cascades National Park, Washington” (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 2003), https://digital.lib.washington.edu:443/researchworks/handle/1773/5601.

But as climate change grew: Scientific studies and white papers written in the 1990s predicted that climate change would increase both the frequency of fires and the area burned. Here are a few: Margaret S. Torn and Jeremy S. Fried, “Predicting the Impacts of Global Warming on Wildland Fire,” Climatic Change 21, no. 3 (July 1, 1992): 257–74; M. D. Flannigan and C. E. Van Wagner, “Climate Change and Wildfire in Canada,” Canadian Journal of Forest Research 21, no. 1 (January 1, 1991): 66–72; Margaret S. Torn, Evan Mills, and Jeremy S. Fried, “Will Climate Change Spark More Wildfire Damages?” LBNL Report No. 42592, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1998.

Jerry Williams, the former national director: Michael Kodas, Megafire: The Race to Extinguish a Deadly Epidemic of Flame (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017); “The Mega-Fire Phenomenon: Toward a More Effective Management Model,” Brookings Institution, September 15, 2005.

But some had been deadly: U.S. Forest Service, Thirtymile Fire Investigation: Accident Investigation Factual Report and Management Evaluation Report, October 16, 2001, https://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/lessons/documents/Thirtymile_Reports/Thirtymile-Final-Report-2.pdf; David Bowermaster, Maureen O’Hagan, and Warren Cornwall, “Thirty Mile Crew Boss Charged in 4 Fire Deaths,” Seattle Times, December 21, 2006, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/thirty-mile-crew-boss-charged-in-4-fire-deaths/.

In 2006, a heat wave radiated: Alexander Gershunov, Daniel R. Cayan, and Sam F. Iacobellis, “The Great 2006 Heat Wave over California and Nevada: Signal of an Increasing Trend,” Journal of Climate 22, no. 23 (December 1, 2009): 6181–203, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI2465.1.

In late July in the Methow: Susan J. Prichard and Maureen C. Kennedy, “Fuel Treatments and Landform Modify Landscape Patterns of Burn Severity in an Extreme Fire Event,” Ecological Applications 24, no. 3 (April 1, 2014): 571–90, https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/13-0343.1.

The smoke plume: Susan J. Prichard, “Learning to Live with Wildfires: How Communities Can Become ‘Fire-Adapted,’” The Conversation, July 6, 2016, http://theconversation.com/learning-to-live-with-wildfires-how-communities-can-become-fire-adapted-59508.

already weakened by infestations of beetles: Prichard and Kennedy, “Fuel Treatments and Landform.”

eventually grew to more than 175,000 acres: Hal Bernton, “Forest Was Easy Prey for Raging Tripod Fire,” Seattle Times, September 24, 2006, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/forest-was-easy-prey-for-raging-tripod-fire/.

and bigger in land area than the 150,000-acre Camp Fire: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, “CAL FIRE Investigators Determine Cause of the Camp Fire,” May 15, 2019, https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/5121/campfire_cause.pdf.

In October, snowfall finally quenched: Susan J. Prichard and David L. Peterson, Landscape Analysis of Fuel Treatment Longevity and Effectiveness in the 2006 Tripod Complex Fires: Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program, 2013, https://www.firescience.gov/projects/09-1-01-19/project/09-1-01-19_final_report.pdf.

This region would be a refuge: Cliff Mass, “Will the Pacific Northwest Be a Climate Refuge Under Global Warming?” Cliff Mass Weather Blog, July 28, 2014, https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2014/07/will-pacific-northwest-be-climate.html; Stacy Vynne, Steve Adams, Roger Hamilton, and Bob Doppelt, Building Climate Resiliency in the Lower Willamette Region of Western Oregon: A Report on Stakeholder Findings and Recommendations, The Resource Innovation Group’s Climate Leadership Initiative, January 2011; Hannah Hickey, “UW Study: Will Puget Sound’s Population Spike Under Climate Change?” UW News, October 20, 2015, https://www.washington.edu/news/2015/10/20/uw-study-will-puget-sounds-population-spike-under-climate-change/.

the city’s famously snarky alternative newspaper, named it: Bethany Jean Clement, “HOTPOCALYPSE 2014: Seattle Heatwave Survival Guide,” Stranger, July 11, 2014, http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/07/11/hotpocalypse-2014-seattle-heatwave-survival-guide.

That year, the Seattle Times posted a series of images: Benjamin Woodard, “Check Out These Spectacular Photos of Seattle’s Smoky Sunsets,” July 9, 2015, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/check-out-these-spectacular-photos-of-seattles-smoky-sunsets/.

“The fires’ impact—the claustrophobia”: Lindy West, “We’re Choking on Smoke in Seattle,” New York Times, August 9, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/opinion/smoke-heat-seattle-climate.html.

Rivers of smoke gushed: Asia Fields and Michelle Baruchman, “Seattle Pollution Levels Surge, as Smoky Air Returns Through at Least Wednesday,” Seattle Times, August 19, 2018, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/smoky-air-returns-to-seattle-through-at-least-wednesday/.

Seattle air quality was suddenly: Kipp Robertson, “Seattle’s Air Quality Worse Than India, China,” KING5, August 15, 2018, https://www.king5.com/article/weather/weather-blog/seattles-air-quality-worse-than-india-china/281-584411100.

“birthplace of smokejumping”: “History,” North Cascades Smokejumper Base, accessed October 19, 2021, https://www.northcascadessmokejumperbase.com/history/.

A fire called the Williams Flats was burning on the Colville Reservation: “Williams Flats Fire on Colville Reservation Still Burning, But Fully Contained,” KREM, August 25, 2019, https://www.krem.com/article/news/local/wildfire/lightning-may-have-sparked-fire-burning-on-colville-indian-reservation/293-39d02b18-2e01-4666-a5c4-4767f68e93c3.

there had been seven thousand lightning strikes in Washington and Oregon: Dee Camp, “Thunderstorms Touch Off Several Fires,” Omak-Okanogan County Chronicle, https://www.omakchronicle.com/free/thunderstorms-touch-off-several-fires/article_f388cbf2-bdf3-11e9-974c-9bc5f6cccf37.html; Bill Gabbert, “More Than 7,000 Lightning Strikes in Washington and Oregon Saturday,” Wildfire Today, August 11, 2019, https://wildfiretoday.com/2019/08/11/more-than-7000-lightning-strikes-in-washington-and-oregon-saturday/.

The history of smokejumping was closely entwined: Jordan Fisher Smith, Engineering Eden: The True Story of a Violent Death, a Trial, and the Fight over Controlling Nature (New York: Crown, 2016).

the only all-Black airborne unit: Linton Weeks, “How Black Smokejumpers Helped Save the American West,” NPR History Dept. (blog), National Public Radio, January 22, 2015, https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/01/22/376973981/how-black-smokejumpers-helped-save-the-american-west.

By 1935, the Forest Service’s official policy: Diane M. Smith, “Sustainability and Wildland Fire: The Origins of Forest Service Wildland Fire Research,” U.S. Forest Service, FS-1085, May 2017; Susan J. Husari and Kevin S. McKelvey, “Fire-Management Policies and Programs,” in Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress, vol. II, Assessments and Scientific Basis for Management Options (Davis: University of California, Centers for Water and Wildland Resources), 1996.

But in the last decade, the Forest Service has invested: “Suppression Costs,” National Interagency Fire Center, accessed February 14, 2022, https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics/suppression-costs.

Engineers eventually developed: “Planes,” U.S. Forest Service, December 12, 2016, http://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/fire/planes.

But some others had previously been clear-cut: Prichard and Peterson, “Landscape Analysis.”

When early anthropologists and historians tried to estimate the population: Alexander Koch, Chris Brierley, Mark M. Maslin, and Simon L. Lewis, “Earth System Impacts of the European Arrival and Great Dying in the Americas After 1492,” Quaternary Science Reviews 207, no. 1 (March 2019): 13–36, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004.

Old World diseases, combined with colonial violence: Lizzie Wade, “From Black Death to Fatal Flu, Past Pandemics Show Why People on the Margins Suffer Most,” Science, May 14, 2020, https://www.science.org/content/article/black-death-fatal-flu-past-pandemics-show-why-people-margins-suffer-most.

Some evidence of this distortion lay: Katie Bacon, “The Pristine Myth,” Atlantic, March 7, 2002, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/03/the-pristine-myth/303062/.

lingered in many fields, including ecology: Jon E. Keeley, “Native American Impacts on Fire Regimes of the California Coastal Ranges,” Journal of Biogeography 29, no. 3 (March 2002): 303–20, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2002.00676.x.

But over at least the past couple of decades, some historians: William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” Environmental History 1, no. 1 (January 1996): 7–28; William M. Denevan, “The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82, no. 3 (September 1, 1992): 369–85, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1992.tb01965.x.

Before Europeans arrived in North America, Indigenous communities: Robin Kimmerer and Frank Kanawha Lake, “Maintaining the Mosaic: The Role of Indigenous Burning in Land Management,” Journal of Forestry 99, no. 11 (November 2001): 36–41.

In 2011, for instance, researchers from the University of Washington: Brendan D. O’Fallon and Lars Fehren-Schmitz, “Native Americans Experienced a Strong Population Bottleneck Coincident with European Contact,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 51 (December 20, 2011): 20444–48, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1112563108.

In the 1950s, the famous wildlife biologist and policy advisor A. Starker Leopold: Kiki Leigh Rydell, “A Public Face for Science: A. Starker Leopold and the Leopold Report,” George Wright Forum 15, no. 4 (1998): 50–63; Stephen J. Pyne, “Vignettes of Primitive America: The Leopold Report and Fire Policy,” Forest History Today, Spring 2017, https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Pyne_Vignettes.pdf.

some of the oldest federally run prescribed fire programs in the West: Pyne, “Vignettes of Primitive America.”

In the words of Kimmerer and Lake: Kimmerer and Lake, “Maintaining the Mosaic.”

Susan and her colleagues ran an analysis: Susan J. Prichard, David L. Peterson, and Kyle Jacobson, “Fuel Treatments Reduce the Severity of Wildfire Effects in Dry Mixed Conifer Forest, Washington, USA,” Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40, no. 8 (August 1, 2010): 1615–26, https://doi.org/10.1139/X10-109.

Then she and another scientist used satellite data: Prichard and Kennedy, “Fuel Treatments and Landform.”

On Monday, July 14, lightning lit four fires: Jim Kershner, “Carlton Complex Fire,” HistoryLink.org, December 10, 2014, accessed October 19, 2021, http://www.historylink.org/File/10989.

two years later, at the age of twenty: William D. Moody, History of the North Cascades Smokejumper Base (Missoula, MT: National Smokejumper Association, 2019), https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumping_pubs/4.

across the West, the ski season: Xubin Zeng, Patrick Broxton, and Nicholas Dawson, “Snowpack Change from 1982 to 2016 over Conterminous United States,” Geophysical Research Letters 45, no. 23 (2018): 12940–47, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079621.

Four separate fires lit: Ann McCreary, “WEDNESDAY UPDATE: More Evacuation Orders as Fires, Smoke Spread,” Methow Valley News, July 16, 2014, https://methowvalleynews.com/2014/07/16/wednesday-update-more-evacuation-orders-as-fires-smoke-spread/; Ryan Maye Handy, “Carlton Complex Fire Largest in Washington State History,” Wildfire Today, July 22, 2014, https://wildfiretoday.com/2014/07/22/carlton-complex-fire-largest-in-washington-state-history/.

more than a hundred firefighters: Kershner, “Carlton Complex Fire.”

President Barack Obama arrived in Seattle: Jim Brunner, “Obama Hits 2 Fundraisers, Gets Word from Inslee on Wildfires,” Seattle Times, July 22, 2014, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/obama-hits-2-fundraisers-gets-word-from-inslee-on-wildfires/; “Obama Declares Emergency as Huge Fires Burn in Washington State,” Colorado Public Radio, July 23, 2014, https://www.cpr.org/2014/07/23/obama-declares-emergency-as-huge-fires-burn-in-washington-state/.

After all the damages had been assessed: Kershner, “Carlton Complex Fire.”

In mid-August, another fire lit: Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Wildland Fire Investigation Report: Rising Eagle Road Fire, August 1, 2014, https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/9169440b-3652-44f1-8b64-9c12f03c446b/downloads/Dangerous_Trailers.org_FINAL_14-V-AEU_Rising_Eagle_Road_WFIR.pdf; Marcy Stamper, “DNR Investigation: Improperly Maintained Trailer Caused Rising Eagle Road Fire,” Methow Valley News, March 11, 2015, https://methowvalleynews.com/2015/03/11/dnr-investigation-improperly-maintained-trailer-caused-rising-eagle-road-fire/.

One of these belonged: Kelli Scott, “Starting Over: A Methow Valley Artist Lost Everything in Last Summer’s Wildfires. A Year Later, She’s Found It Again,” Wenatchee World, August 20, 2015, https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/go/starting-over-a-methow-valley-artist-lost-everything-in-last-summers-wildfires-a-year-later/article_d59f67c2-ae89-52fe-8134-1738dbb2ad9b.html.

At the end of August, rains arrived again: “Rain After Wildfires Triggers Mudslides in Washington State,” CBS News, August 22, 2014, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rain-after-wildfires-triggers-mudslides-in-washington-state/; Kershner, “Carlton Complex Fire.”

a common trouble after wildfires loosen earth and liberate: Kevin D. Bladon, Monica B. Emelko, Uldis Silins, and Micheal Stone, “Wildfire and the Future of Water Supply,” Environmental Science and Technology 48, no. 16 (August 19, 2014): 8936–43, https://doi.org/10.1021/es500130g.

Fire and Ice, a Robert Frost allusion: Robert Frost, “Fire and Ice,” Poetry Foundation, accessed October 19, 2021, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44263/fire-and-ice.

Three-fourths of the people living in Pateros: K. C. Mehaffey, “Fire’s Aftermath: Uninsured and Under-Insured Finding Strength to Move Forward,” Wenatchee World, October 1, 2014, https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/local/fire-s-aftermath-uninsured-and-under-insured-finding-strength-to-move-forward/article-6e36c519-59f1-5800-842a-aae50a2491ad.html.

The couple whose broken-down trailer: Marcy Stamper, “Rising Eagle Road Fire Lawsuit Settled; Couple Cleared,” Methow Valley News, January 18, 2018, https://methowvalleynews.com/2018/01/18/rising-eagle-road-fire-lawsuit-settled-couple-cleared/.

2: Homesick

I first interviewed Glenn Albrecht for an article in YES! magazine, “When Words Fail: Does a Warming World Need a New Vocabulary?” September 19, 2011, and have done several interviews with him in the years since. In 2013, I traveled to Perth, Australia, as a visiting scholar and met with him in person. Many of the quotes and biographical information in this chapter are from these personal communications.

After the English invaded Wales in the thirteenth century: Pamela Petro, “Dreaming in Welsh,” Paris Review (blog), September 18, 2012, https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/09/18/dreaming-in-welsh/.

In 1688, Johannes Hofer, then a medical student: Thomas Dodman, What Nostalgia Was: War, Empire, and the Time of a Deadly Emotion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018).

He called it nostalgia, derived from Greek: “Medical Dissertation on Nostalgia by Johannes Hofer, 1688,” trans. Carolyn Kiser Anspach, Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine 2, no. 6 (1934): 376–91.

Modern nostalgia can be pleasant or cloying but also dangerous: Rhaina Cohen, Shankar Vedantam, Tara Boyle, and Renee Klahr, “Nostalgia Isn’t Just a Fixation on the Past—It Can Be About the Future, Too,” Hidden Brain, National Public Radio, podcast audio, October 16, 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/10/16/558055384/nostalgia-isnt-just-a-fixation-on-the-past-it-can-be-about-the-future-too.

German word Heimat, which translates roughly: Julia Metzger-Traber, If the Body Politic Could Breathe in the Age of the Refugee: An Embodied Philosophy of Interconnection (Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer, 2018).

That meaning still haunts Germany: Jill Petzinger, “Germany Is Adding a Ministry for ‘Heimat,’ a Word Loaded with Negative Undertones,” Quartz, February 20, 2018, https://qz.com/1209547/germany-is-adding-a-ministry-for-heimat-a-word-loaded-with-negative-undertones/.

when the German Ministry of the Interior formally renamed itself: Ceyda Nurtsch, “‘Your Homeland Is Our Nightmare,’” Qantara.de, March 29, 2019, https://en.qantara.de/content/germanys-integration-debate-your-homeland-is-our-nightmare.

To them the word still evoked: “Your Homeland Is Our Nightmare,” YouTube video, 1:24:21, panel discussion moderated by Marc Reugebrink with Mithu Sanyal, Fatma Aydemir, and Max Czollek, Goethe-Institut Brüssel, May 27, 2020, posted by “Literaturhaus Berlin,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTsxsOzgB3o.

Social psychiatrist Mindy Fullilove has described: Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It (New York: New Village Press, 2016), 11.

As a child in the 1950s and 1960s, he kept a secret aviary: Glenn A. Albrecht, chap. 1 in Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019).

Coal mining in the Hunter dates to the late eighteenth century: Drew Cottle and Angela Keys, “Open-Cut Coal Mining in Australia’s Hunter Valley: Sustainability and the Industry’s Economic, Ecological and Social Implications,” International Journal of Rural Law and Policy, no. 1 (September 10, 2014): 1–7, https://doi.org/10.5130/ijrlp.i1.2014.3844.

Between 1981 and 2012, the amount of land occupied: Hydrocology Consulting, Unfair Shares: How Coal Mines Bought the Hunter River, commissioned by the Lock the Gate Alliance, July 2014, https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/lockthegate/pages/2122/attachments/original/1438071706/LTG_CoalMinesHunterRiver_SML-1.pdf?1438071706.

coal produces the highest carbon emissions: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” December 29, 2015, https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions.

Children living in the region have high rates: Fiona Armstrong, Coal and Health in the Hunter: Lessons from One Valley for the World (Melbourne: Climate and Health Alliance, February 23, 2015).

Albrecht was confronted with such a scene: Albrecht, chap. 1 in Earth Emotions.

“In their attempts to halt the expansion”: Glenn A. Albrecht, “‘Solastalgia’: A New Concept in Health and Identity,” PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature, no. 3 (2005): 41–55.

In the 1990s, a group of psychologists: Mark A. Schroll, “Remembering Ecopsychology’s Origins: A Chronicle of Meetings, Conversations, and Significant Publications,” Gatherings: Journal of the International Community for Ecopsychology, accessed October 20, 2021, https://www.ecopsychology.org/journal/ezine/ep_origins.html.

In September 2021, more than two hundred medical journals: Lukoye Atwoli, Abdullah H. Baqui, Thomas Benfield, Raffaella Bosurgi, Fiona Godlee, Stephen Hancocks, Richard Horton, et al., “Call for Emergency Action to Limit Global Temperature Increases, Restore Biodiversity, and Protect Health,” New England Journal of Medicine 385, no. 12 (September 16, 2021): 1134–37, https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMe2113200.

There are words in Indigenous languages: S. Fox, When the Weather Is Uggianaqtuq: Inuit Observations of Environmental Change (Boulder: University of Colorado Geography Department Cartography Lab, 2003), summary; Montserrat Madariaga, “Of How a Hopi Ancient Word Became a Famous Experimental Film,” Not Even Past, May 15, 2018, https://notevenpast.org/of-how-a-hopi-ancient-word-became-a-famous-experimental-film/.

A British trip-hop band: Daniel B. Smith, “Is There an Ecological Unconscious?” New York Times Magazine, January 27, 2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31ecopsych-t.html.

A team of social scientists identified feelings: Petra Tschakert, Raymond Tutu, and Anna Alcaro, “Embodied Experiences of Environmental and Climatic Changes in Landscapes of Everyday Life in Ghana,” Emotion, Space and Society 7 (May 1, 2013): 13–25, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2011.11.001.

A collaboration of environmental scientists and public health researchers observed: Paul A. Sandifer, Landon C. Knapp, Tracy K. Collier, Amanda L. Jones, Robert-Paul Juster, Christopher R. Kelble, Richard K. Kwok, et al., “A Conceptual Model to Assess Stress-Associated Health Effects of Multiple Ecosystem Services Degraded by Disaster Events in the Gulf of Mexico and Elsewhere,” GeoHealth 1, no. 1 (2017): 17–36, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GH000038.

A Los Angeles physician named David Eisenman: David Eisenman, Sarah McCaffrey, Ian Donatello, and Grant Marshal, “An Ecosystems and Vulnerable Populations Perspective on Solastalgia and Psychological Distress After a Wildfire,” EcoHealth 12, no. 4 (December 2015): 602–10, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-015-1052-1.

It’s now becoming more common: Nylah Burton, “Experts Say Grief Is a Major Response to the Climate Crisis—Here’s How to Cope,” Bustle, August 14, 2019, https://www.bustle.com/p/climate-grief-is-a-more-common-emotion-than-youd-think-18656107; Chris Taylor and Ira Flatow, “You Aren’t Alone in Grieving the Climate Crisis,” Science Friday, podcast audio, April 17, 2020, https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/climate-crisis-grief/.

We have even more ways to name: Ashlee Cunsolo and Neville R. Ellis, “Ecological Grief as a Mental Health Response to Climate Change-Related Loss,” Nature Climate Change 8, no. 4 (April 2018): 275–81, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2; Renee Lertzman, Environmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic Dimensions of Engagement (London: Routledge, 2015).

In a 2020 survey by the American Psychological Association: “Majority of US Adults Believe Climate Change Is Most Important Issue Today,” American Psychological Association, February 6, 2020, https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/02/climate-change.

In 2019 alone: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Global Report on Internal Displacement 2020, accessed October 20, 2021, https://www.internal-displacement.org/global-report/grid2020/.

A record-breaking monsoon season: “2019 Saw More Deaths in India Despite Less Number of Extreme Events: State of Environment,” Weather Channel, February 10, 2020, https://weather.com/en-IN/india/news/news/2020-02-10-state-of-environment-more-deaths-despite-less-number-of-extreme-events; “Monsoon Floods Displace Millions in India,” BBC News, July 15, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48979668; International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Final Report, India: Monsoon Rains and Floods, July 23, 2020, https://reliefweb.int/report/india/india-monsoon-rains-and-floods-final-report-dref-n-mdrin024.

Various economists have tried: Juan-Carlos Ciscar, Ana Iglesias, Luc Feyen, László Szabó, Denise Van Regemorter, Bas Amelung, Robert Nicholls, et al., “Physical and Economic Consequences of Climate Change in Europe,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 7 (February 15, 2011): 2678–83, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011612108.

Others have made calculations: Juan-Carlos Ciscar, James Rising, Robert E. Kopp, and Luc Feyen, “Assessing Future Climate Change Impacts in the EU and the USA: Insights and Lessons from Two Continental-Scale Projects,” Environmental Research Letters 14, no. 8 (August 1, 2019): 084010, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab281e; “World Economy Set to Lose up to 18% GDP from Climate Change If No Action Taken, Reveals Swiss Re Institute’s Stress-Test Analysis,” Swiss Re, April 22, 2021, https://www.swissre.com/media/news-releases/nr-20210422-economics-of-climate-change-risks.html.

Former vice president Al Gore has called: Ryan Lizza, “Al Gore on the Failure of Climate-Change Legislation,” New Yorker, October 5, 2010, http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/al-gore-on-the-failure-of-climate-change-legislation.

The journalist David Wallace-Wells: David Wallace-Wells, “Storytelling,” in The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (New York: Crown, 2019).

Because of climate change, the amount of regional rainfall has dropped: “Climate and Southern WA,” Water Corporation, accessed October 20, 2021, https://www.watercorporation.com.au/Our-water/Climate-change-and-WA/Climate-and-Southern-WA.

In the exurbs, entire forests of jarrah trees: ““Experts Warn WA’s Northern Jarrah Forest Under Threat,” PerthNow, February 21, 2012, https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/experts-warn-was-northern-jarrah-forest-under-threat-ng-9c131c5a78c8bedb5c72897e942472a8.

the concept had been used in a 2013 court ruling: Amanda Kennedy, “A Case of Place: Solastalgia Comes Before the Court,” PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature 12 (2016): 23–33.

Albrecht had testified: Glenn A. Albrecht, Report for Warkworth Mount Thorley PAC Hearing, December 2014, https://www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au/resources/pac/media/files/pac/projects/2014/11/mt-thorley-continuation-project/edo-on-behalf-of-bulga-milbrodale-progress-association/3-albrecht-social-impacts-supplementarypdf.pdf.

3: The Flood

Much of the reporting here and in chapter 9 was originally done for a story in Hakai Magazine, “The Sea Versus St. Augustine,” May 19, 2020. Some also appeared in a 2015 article I wrote for Al Jazeera America, “Climate Change Threatens to Wash Away Cultural History.”

home, n.: home, n.A.5., OED Online.

a town on a group of islands: “Cedar Key History,” Cedar Key Historical Society Museum, November 11, 2018, https://cedarkeyhistory.org/cedarkey/history/.

Her thesis offered a nearly exhaustive review: Jennifer Marie Wolfe, “Historic Context at Risk: Planning for Tropical Cyclone Events in Historic Cedar Key” (master’s thesis, University of Florida, 2006).

Established in the sixteenth century by the Spanish: “St. Augustine: America’s Ancient City,” Florida Museum, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/staugustine/.

Her new desk stood inside city hall: “The Hotel Alcazar,” Lightner Museum, accessed October 21, 2021, https://lightnermuseum.org/history-alcazar/.

The city’s most iconic structure: “The Founding of Castillo de San Marcos,” Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, U.S. National Park Service, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/the-founding-of-castillo-de-san-marcos.htm.

built from coquina, a stone formed by the compression of piles of tiny clamshells: “Geologic Activity,” Fort Matanzas National Monument, U.S. National Park Service, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/foma/learn/nature/geologicactivity.htm; “General Information,” Florida Atlantic University Department of Geosciences, accessed October 21, 2021, http://www.geosciences.fau.edu/events/virtual-field-trips/anastasia/general-information.php.

And to the south lies a neighborhood called Lincolnville: “Florida, St. Augustine, Lincolnville Historic District,” U.S. National Park Service, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/geo-flor/28.htm.

In 2009, the U.S. government released: U.S. Global Change Research Program, ed., Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States: A State of Knowledge Report (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

A few months later, four counties down the coast from St. Augustine: “Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact,” accessed October 21, 2021, https://southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/compact.pdf.

but didn’t prevent Governor Rick Scott: Tristram Korten, “In Florida, Officials Ban Term ‘Climate Change,’” Miami Herald, March 11, 2015, https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article12983720.html.

Nor has it prevented real estate tycoons: Jeff Goodell, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World (New York: Little, Brown, 2017); Megan Mayhew Bergman, “Florida Is Drowning. Condos Are Still Being Built. Can’t Humans See the Writing on the Wall?” Guardian, February 15, 2019, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/15/florida-climate-change-coastal-real-estate-rising-seas; Greg Allen, “South Florida Real Estate Boom Not Dampened by Sea Level Rise,” National Public Radio, December 5, 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/12/05/567264841/south-florida-real-estate-boom-not-dampened-by-sea-level-rise.

the Obama White House also directed agencies: Jane A. Leggett, Climate Change Adaptation by Federal Agencies: An Analysis of Plans and Issues for Congress (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, February 23, 2015).

Between 2012 and 2014, St. Augustine added a new seawall: “Avenida Menendez Seawall,” City of St. Augustine, accessed May 3, 2021, https://www.citystaug.com/357/Avenida-Menendez-Seawall; “Avenida Menendez FAQs,” City of St. Augustine, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.citystaug.com/Faq.aspx?QID=88; “Seawall Helps Preserve History in St. Augustine,” Daytona Beach News-Journal, December 28, 2016, https://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20161228/seawall-helps-preserve-history-in-st-augustine; Peter Guinta, “St. Augustine’s Seawall Project Finished,” St. Augustine Record, January 4, 2014, https://www.staugustine.com/story/news/local/2014/01/05/st-augustines-seawall-project-finished/16072452007/.

It had been platted in the 1920s: Rodney Kite-Powell, “In Search of D. P. Davis: A Biographical Study of One of Florida’s Premier Real Estate Promoters,” Sunland Tribune 29, no. 7 (2003): 77–114, https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol29/iss1/7.

St. Augustine’s sea level rise report came back: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and Florida Coastal Management Program, Coastal Vulnerability Assessment: City of St. Augustine, Florida, June 24, 2016, https://www.citystaug.com/DocumentCenter/View/323/Coastal-Vulnerability-Assessment-PDF.

Hurricane Matthew rose up from the Caribbean: “Hurricane Matthew in the Carolinas: October 8, 2016,” National Weather Service, October 8, 2016, https://www.weather.gov/ilm/Matthew.

here it produced a horrifying disaster: Joseph Guyler Delva and Scott Malone, “Hurricane Matthew Kills Almost 900 in Haiti Before Hitting U.S.,” Reuters, October 5, 2016, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-storm-matthew-idUSKCN1250G2; Azam Ahmed, “Hurricane Matthew Makes Old Problems Worse for Haitians,” New York Times, October 6, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/world/americas/hurricane-matthew-haiti.html.

Then it struck Cuba: Sam Jones and Nicky Woolf, “Hurricane Matthew Makes Landfall in Cuba After Ripping Through Haiti,” Guardian, October 5, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/04/hurricane-matthew-haitians-flee-inland-as-violent-storm-approaches; Pam Wright and Rachel Delia Benaim, “Crowdfunding Campaigns Underway to Aid Cuba as Country Grapples with Hurricane Matthew Destruction,” Weather Channel, October 8, 2016, https://weather.com/news/news/hurricane-matthew-cuba.

The evacuation order for St. John’s County: “St. Johns County Issues Mandatory Evacuation Order,” First Coast News, October 6, 2016, https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/st-johns-county-issues-evacuation-order-for-coastal-areas/329221386.

“the western edge of Matthew’s eyewall”: Stacy R. Stewart, National Hurricane Center, Tropical Cyclone Report, Hurricane Matthew, National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, April 7, 2017, https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL142016_Matthew.pdf.

In video footage from the storm, St. Augustine resembled an underwater ruin: “St. Augustine Streets Fill with Water from Hurricane Matthew,” Action News JAX, October 8, 2016, https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/st-augustine-streets-filled-with-water-from-hurricane-matthew/454618481/.

Downed fences: Jake Martin, “Hurricane Matthew: Surveying Damage in St. Augustine the Morning After,” St. Augustine Record, October 8, 2016, https://www.staugustine.com/story/news/local/2016/10/08/hurricane-matthew-surveying-damage-st-augustine-morning/16296294007/.

Beginning at least five thousand years ago, the ancestors: Kenneth E. Sassaman, Paulette S. McFadden, Micah P. Monés, Andrea Palmiotto, and Asa R. Randall, “North Gulf Coastal Archaeology of the Here and Now,” in New Histories of Pre-Columbian Florida, ed. Neill J. Wallis and Asa R. Randall (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2014), 143–62, https://doi.org/10.5744/florida/9780813049366.003.0008.

Shell mounds may have had various functions: Margo Schwadron, “Landscapes of Maritime Complexity: Prehistoric Shell Work Sites of the Ten Thousand Islands, Florida” (Ph.D. diss., University of Leicester, 2010); Kenneth E. Sassaman and Friends of the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges, “Shell Mound: A Portal into Another World,” interpretive signs, University of Florida, https://www.friendsofrefuges.org/uploads/2/2/9/2/22922110/shell_mound-printable.pdf; Kenneth E. Sassaman, Meggan E. Blessing, Joshua M. Goodwin, Jessica A. Jenkins, Ginessa J. Mahar, Anthony Boucher, Terry E. Barbour, et al., “Maritime Ritual Economies of Cosmic Synchronicity: Summer Solstice Events at a Civic-Ceremonial Center on the Northern Gulf Coast of Florida,” American Antiquity 85, no. 1 (January 2020): 22–50, https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2019.68.

At some mounds, there is evidence of regular feasts: Kenneth E. Sassaman, “Summer Solstice Feasts and Other Gatherings at Shell Mound on the Northern Gulf Coast of Florida,” Adventures in Florida Archaeology (2019): 20–26.

In some locations, people buried their dead inside the mounds: Kenneth E. Sassaman, John S. Krigbaum, Ginessa J. Mahar, and Andrea Palmiotto, Archaeological Investigations at McClamory Key (8LV288), Levy County, Florida (Gainesville: University of Florida, March 2015).

But there were sometimes sudden disruptions: Miriam C. Jones, G. Lynn Wingard, Bethany Stackhouse, Katherine Keller, Debra Willard, Marci Marot, Bryan Landacre, et al., “Rapid Inundation of Southern Florida Coastline Despite Low Relative Sea-Level Rise Rates During the Late-Holocene,” Nature Communications 10, no. 1 (July 19, 2019): 3231, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11138-4.

In about two and a half decades: Union of Concerned Scientists, Underwater: Rising Seas, Chronic Floods, and the Implications for US Coastal Real Estate, June 18, 2018, https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/underwater.

In 2012, real estate developers: Erin Durkin, “North Carolina Didn’t Like Science on Sea Levels … So Passed a Law Against It,” Guardian, September 12, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/12/north-carolina-didnt-like-science-on-sea-levels-so-passed-a-law-against-it.

Since at least the 1970s and 1980s, scientists: J. H. Mercer, “West Antarctic Ice Sheet and CO₂ Greenhouse Effect: A Threat of Disaster,” Nature 271, no. 5643 (January 1, 1978): 321–25. https://doi.org/10.1038/271321a0.

For instance, a roughly decade-long Dutch project: ClimateWire, “How the Dutch Make ‘Room for the River’ by Redesigning Cities,” Scientific American, January 20, 2012, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-dutch-make-room-for-the-river/; “Room for the River Programme,” Dutch Water Sector, April 15, 2019, https://www.dutchwatersector.com/news/room-for-the-river-programme.

“Room for the River,” or Ruimte voor de Rivier, is described: Elizabeth Kolbert, Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2007), 126–27.

infamous because of cost overruns: “Venice Flooded as New $8 Billion Dam System Fails to Activate,” CBS News, December 9, 2020, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venice-flooded-as-new-8-billion-dam-system-fails-to-activate/.

Nearly half of Venice can still flood: Julia Buckley, “Venice Flood Causes ‘Serious’ Damage Two Months After Flood Barriers Were Introduced,” CNN, December 9, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/venice-flood-basilica-mose/index.html.

In October 2020, the project: Julia Buckley, “Venice Holds Back the Water for First Time in 1,200 Years,” CNN, October 5, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/venice-flood-barrier/index.html; Sarah Cascone, “Offering a Glimmer of Hope for Venice, the City’s New Flood Barriers Successfully Prevented a Deluge This Weekend,” Artnet News, October 5, 2020, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/venice-flood-barriers-1912983.

Two months later, when the forecast failed: Buckley, “Venice Flood Causes”; Rebecca Ann Hughes, “Why Isn’t Venice’s MOSE Holding Back the Tide?” Forbes, December 10, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccahughes/2020/12/10/why-isnt-venices-mose-holding-back-the-tide/.

In 2015, Lisa Craig, the chief of historic preservation of Annapolis, Maryland: Lisa M. Craig and Leslee F. Keys, “A Tale of Two Cities: Annapolis and St. Augustine Balancing Preservation and Community Values in an Era of Rising Seas,” Parks Stewardship Forum, January 6, 2020, https://parks.berkeley.edu/psf/?p=1717.

the frequency of chronic flooding: “NOAA: ‘Nuisance Flooding’ an Increasing Problem as Coastal Sea Levels Rise,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, July 28, 2014, https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-nuisance-flooding-increasing-problem-as-coastal-sea-levels-rise; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Sea Level Rise and Nuisance Flood Frequency Changes Around the United States (Silver Spring, MD: NOAA, June 2014), https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/publications/NOAA_Technical_Report_NOS_COOPS_073.pdf.

But when a new mayor was elected in 2017: Danielle Ohl, “Annapolis Chief of Historic Preservation Quits, Citing Worries About Buckley Administration,” Capital Gazette, November 15, 2017, https://www.capitalgazette.com/maryland/annapolis/ac-cn-chief-historic-preservation-resigns-20171114-story.html.

The next year, a citizen advisory committee would come together: Jeremy Cox, “Can Makeover Save Annapolis City Dock from Sea Level Rise?” Bay Journal, August 9, 2021, https://www.bayjournal.com/news/climate_change/can-makeover-save-annapolis-city-dock-from-sea-level-rise/article_5b14ee3c-d827-11eb-ac82-4772366f7e6a.html; City Dock Action Committee, “Transforming City Dock,” City of Annapolis and Historic Annapolis, March 2019–January 14, 2020, https://www.preservationmaryland.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/city-dock-action-committee-transforming-city-dock-report-2020-annapolis-maryland.pdf.

In 1999, after Hurricane Floyd: David Royce, “Oldest City Protected from Hurricanes,” Tallahassee Democrat, September 16, 1999, accessed at newspapers.com

the costliest disaster in the United States: “Hurricane Andrew (1992),” U.S. National Park Service, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/articles/hurricane-andrew-1992.htm; “Costliest U.S. Tropical Cyclones,” National Centers for Environmental Information and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, last updated October 8, 2021, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/dcmi.pdf.

Leslee Keys would eventually write: Leslee F. Keys, Hotel Ponce de Leon: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Flagler’s Gilded Age Palace (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015), 1, 8.

In 1870, he cofounded Standard Oil: “Henry Flagler,” American Experience, PBS, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/miami-henry-flagler/; “Florida East Coast Railway,” Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.flaglermuseum.us/history/florida-east-coast-railway.

The fantasy of Florida as a paradise: Michael Grunwald, “A Requiem for Florida, the Paradise That Should Never Have Been,” POLITICO Magazine, September 8, 2017, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/08/hurricane-irma-florida-215586.

Hurricane Sandy ransacked the museum buildings on Ellis Island: Debra Holtz, Adam Markham, Kate Cell, and Brenda Ekwurzel, National Landmarks at Risk: How Rising Seas, Floods, and Wildfires Are Threatening the United States’ Most Cherished Historic Sites (Union of Concerned Scientists, May 2014), 7–9.

The state and NOAA also sponsored: Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Coastal Management Program, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Florida Community Resiliency Initiative Pilot Project: Adaptation Plan for St. Augustine, Florida,” May 2017, https://www.citystaug.com/DocumentCenter/View/321/Strategic-Adaption-Plan-PDF.

Then in September 2017: Jess Bidgood, “After Irma, a Grim Sense of Déjà Vu in St. Augustine,” New York Times, September 14, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/us/st-augustine-irma-flood.html.

Leslee’s presentation, which she delivered: Clay Henderson and Leslee F. Keys, “Preserving Paradise: There Is a Little of Florida in All of US” (presentation, Keeping History Above Water, Annapolis, 2017).

4: The First Home

In the late 1970s, a young anthropologist named Richard Potts: Ruth O. Selig, “Human Origins: One Man’s Search for the Causes in Time,” AnthroNotes 21, no. 1 (1999): 1, https://doi.org/10.5479/10088/22375.

In the mid-twentieth century, Mary and Louis Leakey found: Roger Lewin, “The Old Man of Olduvai Gorge,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 2002, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-old-man-of-olduvai-gorge-69246530/.

Potts quite literally followed: Richard Potts, “Home Bases and Early Hominids,” American Scientist 72, no. 4 (July–August 1984): 338–47.

Homo habilis, the “handy man,” the long-armed, strong-jawed human ancestor: “Homo habilis,” Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, accessed October 22, 2021, http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-habilis.

The bones revealed: Richard Potts and Pat Shipman, “Cutmarks Made by Stone Tools on Bones from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania,” Nature 291, no. 5816 (June 1981): 577–80, https://doi.org/10.1038/291577a0.

Homo habilis had various descendants or maybe cousins: “Human Family Tree,” Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, accessed October 22, 2021, http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-family-tree; Casey Luskin, “Paleoanthropologists Disown Homo habilis from Our Direct Family Tree,” Evolution News and Science Today, August 9, 2007, https://evolutionnews.org/2007/08/paleoanthropologists_disown_ho/.

In the mid-2000s, a team of archaeologists: Naama Goren-Inbar, Craig S. Feibel, Kenneth L. Verosub, Yoel Melamed, Mordechai E. Kislev, Eitan Tchernov, and Idit Saragusti, “Pleistocene Milestones on the Out-of-Africa Corridor at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel,” Science 289, no. 5481 (2000): 944–47; Rivka Rabinovich, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, and Naama Goren-Inbar, “Systematic Butchering of Fallow Deer (Dama) at the Early Middle Pleistocene Acheulian Site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov (Israel),” Journal of Human Evolution 54 (2008): 134–49; Naama Goren-Inbar, Nira Alperson, Mordechai E. Kislev, Orit Simchoni, Yoel Melamed, Adi Ben-Nun, and Ella Werker, “Evidence of Hominin Control of Fire at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel,” Science 304, no. 5671 (April 30, 2004): 725–27, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1095443; James Randerson, “Charred Remains May Be Earliest Human Fires,” New Scientist, April 29, 2004, https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4944-charred-remains-may-be-earliest-human-fires/.

Eventually the scientists meticulously sifted through: Nira Alperson-Afil, Daniel Richter, and Naama Goren-Inbar, “Evaluating the Intensity of Fire at the Acheulian Site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov—Spatial and Thermoluminescence Analyses,” PloS One 12, no. 11 (November 16, 2017): e0188091, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188091.

stocky, big-browed people with flat faces: “Homo heidelbergensis,” Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, accessed October 22, 2021, http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-heidelbergensis.

what looked like the division of space into various tasks: Mati Milstein, “Homo erectus Invented ‘Modern’ Living?” National Geographic News, January 13, 2010, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/100112-modern-human-behavior.

you arrive in the French Riviera: Henry de Lumley, “A Paleolithic Camp at Nice,” Scientific American, May 1969.

placed a museum therein: “Présentation du musée de préhistoire de Terra Amata,” Ville de Nice, accessed October 22, 2021, https://www.nice.fr/fr/culture/musees-et-galeries/presentation-du-musee-terra-amata.

the first Homo sapiens (our species, the “thinking” or “wise people”) who appeared: John Noble Wilford, “When Humans Became Human,” New York Times, February 26, 2002, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/26/science/when-humans-became-human.html; Richard G. Klein, “Why Anatomically Modern People Did Not Disperse from Africa 100,000 Years Ago,” in Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia, ed. Takeru Akazawa, Kenichi Aoki, and Ofer Bar-Yosef (Boston: Springer US, 1998), 509–21, https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47153-1_33.

we transferred our “individual loyalty”: Ian Tattersall, “In Search of the First Human Home,” Nautilus, December 2, 2013, http://nautil.us/issue/8/home/in-search-of-the-first-human-home.

Scientist and popular author Jared Diamond: Jared M. Diamond, The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (New York: HarperCollins, 2006). (The first edition was published in 1992.)

a pair of modern human skulls from Ethiopia: Michael Hopkin, “Ethiopia Is Top Choice for Cradle of Homo sapiens,” Nature, February 16, 2005, https://doi.org/10.1038/news050214-10.

In 2000, two scientists, including a colleague: Sally McBrearty and Alison S. Brooks, “The Revolution That Wasn’t: A New Interpretation of the Origin of Modern Human Behavior,” Journal of Human Evolution 39, no. 5 (November 2000): 453–563; https://doi.org/10.1006/jhev.2000.0435.

At one archaeological site, in 2007, an archaeologist named Curtis Marean: Curtis W. Marean, Miryam Bar-Matthews, Jocelyn Bernatchez, Erich Fisher, Paul Goldberg, Andy I. R. Herries, Zenobia Jacobs, et al., “Early Human Use of Marine Resources and Pigment in South Africa During the Middle Pleistocene,” Nature 449, no. 7164 (October 18, 2007): 905–8, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06204.

They had been nosing into caves: Curtis W. Marean, “When the Sea Saved Humanity,” Scientific American, November 1, 2012, https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamericanhuman1112-52.

There were also sharp and sophisticated pieces of stone blades: Pete Spotts, “When Did Humans Get Smart? Maybe a Lot Earlier Than Some Thought,” Christian Science Monitor, November 7, 2012, https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/1107/When-did-humans-get-smart-Maybe-a-lot-earlier-than-some-thought.

the first-known seafood-eaters: Heather Pringle, “The Brine Revolution,” Hakai Magazine, April 22, 2015, https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/brine-revolution/.

Meanwhile in Kenya: Richard Potts, “Turbulent Environment Set the Stage for Leaps in Human Evolution and Technology 320,000 Years Ago,” The Conversation, October 21, 2020, http://theconversation.com/turbulent-environment-set-the-stage-for-leaps-in-human-evolution-and-technology-320–000-years-ago-148381.

In the exposed sediment layers, the scientists found one set of artifacts: Richard Potts, René Dommain, Jessica W. Moerman, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Alan L. Deino, Simon Riedl, Emily J. Beverly, et al., “Increased Ecological Resource Variability During a Critical Transition in Hominin Evolution,” Science Advances 6, no. 43 (October 21, 2020): eabc8975, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc8975.

you would probably need to trade: Alison S. Brooks, John E. Yellen, Richard Potts, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Alan L. Deino, David E. Leslie, Stanley H. Ambrose, et al., “Long-Distance Stone Transport and Pigment Use in the Earliest Middle Stone Age,” Science 360, no. 6384 (March 15, 2018): 90–94, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao2646; Richard Potts, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, J. Tyler Faith, Christian A. Tryon, Alison S. Brooks, John E. Yellen, Alan L. Deino, et al., “Environmental Dynamics During the Onset of the Middle Stone Age in Eastern Africa,” Science 360, no. 6384 (March 15, 2018): 86–90, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao2200.

This was Homo sapiens: Alan L. Deino, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Alison S. Brooks, John E. Yellen, Warren D. Sharp, and Richard Potts, “Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age Transition in Eastern Africa,” Science 360, no. 6384 (March 15, 2018): 95–98, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao2216.

what seemed like a fully developed sense of human imagination: Ann Gibbons, “Signs of Symbolic Behavior Emerged at the Dawn of Our Species in Africa,” Science, March 15, 2018, https://www.science.org/content/article/signs-symbolic-behavior-emerged-dawn-our-species-africa.

In 2017, another skull: Ann Gibbons, “Oldest Members of Our Species Discovered in Morocco,” Science, June 7, 2017, https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/world-s-oldest-homo-sapiens-fossils-found-morocco.

We had used these smarts: Richard Potts, “Adaptability and the Continuation of Human Origins” (unpublished manuscript, January 11, 2021), typescript.

Climate studies show that in the early existence of Homo sapiens: Marean, “When the Sea Saved Humanity.”

One of the oldest-known examples of early Homo sapiens architecture: Brian Handwerk, “A Mysterious 25,000-Year-Old Structure Built of the Bones of 60 Mammoths,” Smithsonian Magazine, March 16, 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/60-mammoths-house-russia-180974426/; Alexander J. E. Pryor, David G. Beresford-Jones, Alexander E. Dudin, Ekaterina M. Ikonnikova, John F. Hoffecker, and Clive Gamble, “The Chronology and Function of a New Circular Mammoth-Bone Structure at Kostenki 11,” Antiquity 94, no. 374 (April 2020): 323–41, https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.7.

“Home is a place or places on the landscape”: Jude Isabella, “The Caveman’s Home Was Not a Cave,” Nautilus, December 5, 2013, https://nautil.us/the-cavemans-home-was-not-a-cave-1390/.

“We call the country mother”: Michael Jackson, At Home in the World (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000), 22.

The Indigenous San people of the Kalahari Desert: Jerald Kralik, “Core High-Level Cognitive Abilities Derived from Hunter-Gatherer Shelter Building” (paper presented at the Sixteenth International Conference on Cognitive Modeling, Madison, Wisconsin, July 2018).

In May 2021, the observatory at Mauna Loa: “Carbon Dioxide Peaks Near 420 Parts per Million at Mauna Loa Observatory,” NOAA Research News, June 7, 2021, https://research.noaa.gov/article/ArtMID/587/ArticleID/2764/Coronavirus-response-barely-slows-rising-carbon-dioxide.

According to the IPCC, even with the most ambitious: “Summary for Policymakers,” in Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis; Working Group I Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ed. Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Panmao Zhai, Anna Pirani, Sarah L. Connors, Clotilde Péan, Yang Chen, Leah Goldfarb, et al., 18.

5: The Thaw

Much of the reporting in this chapter and chapter 10 was initially undertaken for two magazine articles: “Evicted by Climate Change,” Hakai Magazine, June 1, 2016, and “The Village at the Edge of the Anthropocene,” Sierra magazine, February 27, 2020. Some of the details on permafrost were also from reporting my story, “Tunnel Vision: Lessons in the Impermanence of Permafrost,” in Undark magazine, April 28, 2020.

Oral history still holds an important place in Newtok, and documentation of past events in this remote region is sometimes sparse. I relied on oral accounts of the village’s past to tell parts of this story.

Yup’ik scholar Alice Rearden provided a review of both chapters on Newtok and verified and supplemented some details about Yup’ik language and culture.

home, n.: home, A.1.4., OED Online.

The early 1990s was a period: Northern Economics, The Anchorage Economy from 1980 to the Present, July 2004, https://aedcweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/History-of-the-Anchorage-Economy-from-1980-2004.pdf.

including some Alaska Natives displaced: Alaska Natives Commission, Final Report, vol. 1. 1996, http://www.alaskool.org/resources/anc/anc00.htm#dedication.

Niugtaq, refers to the rustling of grass: Ann Fienup-Riordan, ed., and Alice Rearden, trans., Qaluyaarmiuni Nunamtenek Qanemciput: Our Nelson Island Stories (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013), xx.

In 1984, engineering consultants: Woodward-Clyde Consultants, Ninglick River Erosion Assessment: Addendum, November 29, 1984.

By 1994, the Newtok council had started planning: Newtok Planning Group, “Newtok Village Relocation History, Part Two: Early Efforts to Address Erosion,” Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, Division of Community and Regional Affairs, accessed October 22, 2021, https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/dcra/PlanningLandManagement/NewtokPlanningGroup/NewtokVillageRelocationHistory/NewtokHistoryPartTwo.aspx.

In 1996, during a flood, the massive Ningliq River ate away: Newtok Planning Group, “Newtok Village Relocation History, Part Three: Progressive Erosion Brings New Problems,” Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, Division of Community and Regional Affairs, accessed October 22, 2021, https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/dcra/PlanningLandManagement/NewtokPlanningGroup/NewtokVillageRelocationHistory/NewtokHistoryPartThree.aspx.

Some parts of the Arctic are, according to a civil engineer: Based on a presentation given by Tom Ravens at the University of Alaska Anchorage, at a side event during the Obama administration’s 2015 GLACIER conference. It was first quoted in my January/February 2016 Audubon story, “How One Alaskan Community Is Attempting to Adapt to Climate Change.”

breathing back out hundreds of millions of tons of carbon: J. Richter-Menge, M. L. Druckenmiller, and M. Jeffries, eds., Arctic Report Card 2019, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, https://arctic.noaa.gov/Portals/7/ArcticReportCard/Documents/ArcticReportCard_full_report2019.pdf.

Moreover, arctic regions are warming: Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Arctic Climate Change Update 2021: Key Trends and Impacts; Summary for Policy-Makers, 2021, Tromsø, Norway.

possibly because sea ice: Aiguo Dai, Dehai Luo, Mirong Song, and Jiping Liu, “Arctic Amplification Is Caused by Sea-Ice Loss Under Increasing CO₂,” Nature Communications 10, no. 1 (January 10, 2019): 121, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07954-9.

An excess of heat in the Arctic can destabilize the global weather system: Yereth Rosen, “A Changing Bering Sea Is Influencing Weather Far to the South, Scientists Say,” ArcticToday, February 19, 2021, https://www.arctictoday.com/a-changing-bering-sea-is-influencing-weather-far-to-the-south-scientists-say/; D. Coumou, G. Di Capua, S. Vavrus, L. Wang, and S. Wang, “The Influence of Arctic Amplification on Mid-Latitude Summer Circulation,” Nature Communications 9, no. 1 (August 20, 2018): 2959, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05256-8.

Beyond lay the Yukon-Kuskokwim: “About the YK Delta,” Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, accessed October 22, 2021, https://www.ykhc.org/story/about-yk/.

with a population of twenty-seven thousand people: Anna Rose MacArthur, “Y-K Delta Population Grew About 9% in Past Decade, According to US Census,” KYUK, August 16, 2021, https://www.kyuk.org/economy/2021-08-16/y-k-delta-population-grew-about-9-in-past-decade-according-to-us-census; “2020 Census Data for Redistricting,” Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development Research and Analysis, accessed October 22, 2021, https://live.laborstats.alaska.gov/cen/2020/downloads.

Between spring and fall, hundreds of millions of migrating birds: Jim Williams and Paul J. Baicich, “Unbirded Alaska,” BirdWatching, updated October 2, 2018, https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/locations-travel/featured-destinations/unbirded-alaska/.

Between 1954 and 2003, the average rate of erosion: Newtok, Alaska; ASCG Incorporated of Alaska; and Bechtol Planning and Development, Village of Newtok, Alaska: Local Hazards Mitigation Plan, March 12, 2008, https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/portals/4/pub/2008_Newtok_HMP.pdf.

as much as 113 linear feet of earth collapsed: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District, Alaska Baseline Erosion Assessment, AVETA Report Summary—Newtok, Alaska, 2006.

In 2003, the U.S. Congress passed a law: Newtok Planning Group, “Newtok Village Relocation History, Part Two”; Pub. L. No. 108–129, 117 Stat. 1358 (2003), https://uscode.house.gov/statutes/pl/108/129.pdf.

In the fall of 2005, such a storm surrounded: Newtok Planning Group, “Newtok Village Relocation History, Part Three.”

The only place that could provide the “barest shelter”: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Revised Environmental Assessment Finding of No Significant Impact: Newtok Evacuation Center; Mertarvik, Nelson Island, Alaska, July 2008, https://www.poa.usace.army.mil/Portals/34/docs/civilworks/reports/Newtok%20Evacuation%20Center%20EA%20&%20FONSI%20July%2008.pdf.

But Newtok’s prospects began to improve: Newtok Planning Group, “Newtok Village Relocation History, Part Four: The Newtok Planning Group,” Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, Division of Community and Regional Affairs, accessed October 22, 2021, https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/dcra/PlanningLandManagement/NewtokPlanningGroup/NewtokVillageRelocationHistory/NewtokHistoryPartFour.aspx.

The closest word to the English home: Steven A. Jacobson, comp., Yup’ik Eskimo Dictionary, vols. 1 and 2 (Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, 2012), 360.

Yup’ik people started to camp: Newtok Planning Group, “Newtok Village Relocation History, Part One.”

Once they passed through the cone: “Fish Trap,” Smithsonian Institution, Alaska Native Collections, accessed October 22, 2021, https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=319; “Black fish Traps,” YouTube video, 4:00, posted by “Maurice Nanalook,” January 8, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ1E9ZBLA2E.

Found only in Alaska and Siberia, blackfish: “Alaska Blackfish,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 1994, http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/education/wns/alaska_blackfish.pdf.

“The world is changing following its people”: Ann Fienup-Riordan and Alice Rearden, Ellavut: Our Yup’ik World and Weather; Continuity and Change on the Bering Sea Coast (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013), 42.

In 2007, the New York Times named: William Yardley, “Victim of Climate Change, a Town Seeks a Lifeline,” New York Times, May 27, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/us/27newtok.html.

Reuters also published: Yereth Rosen, “Climate Change Endangers Alaska’s Coastal Villages,” Reuters, November 9, 2007, https://www.reuters.com/article/environment-alaska-erosion-dc-idUSN0745014320071109.

“We’re United States citizens”: Elizabeth Arnold, “Tale of Two Alaskan Villages,” National Public Radio, July 29, 2008, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93029431.

And there’s the extensive power grid: Harold D. Wallace, Jr., “Power from the People: Rural Electrification Brought More Than Lights,” National Museum of American History, Behring Center, February 11, 2016, https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/rural-electrification.

In 2008, the community requested help from the Department of Defense: Newtok Planning Group, “Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) Program Mertarvik,” Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, Division of Community and Regional Affairs, accessed October 22, 2021, https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/dcra/PlanningLandManagement//NewtokPlanningGroup/IRTMertarvik.aspx.

The conditions were difficult: Alex Demarban, “Newtok’s Opening Move: Military Lays Groundwork to Shift Flood-Threatened Village,” First Alaskans, October/November 2009, https://irt.defense.gov/Portals/57/Documents/news/First_Alaskans_Nov2009.pdf.

In 2011, the community and the Newtok Planning Group: Community of Newtok and Newtok Planning Group, Relocation Report: Newtok to Mertarvik, August 2011, https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/WEB/PORTALS/4/PUB/MERTARVIK_RELOCATION_REPORT_FINAL.PDF.

So in 2011 and 2012, Newtok made a second attempt to build at Mertarvik: Newtok Planning Group, “Mertarvik Housing,” Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, Division of Community and Regional Affairs, accessed October 23, 2021, https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/dcra/PlanningLandManagement/NewtokPlanningGroup/MertarvikHousing.aspx.

camping out in a mostly finished house: Suzanne Goldenberg, “One Family’s Great Escape,” Guardian, May 13, 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2013/may/13/alaskan-family-newtok-mertarvik.

One article in the Guardian: Suzanne Goldenberg, “‘It’s Happening Now … the Village Is Sinking’,” Guardian, May 15, 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2013/may/15/newtok-safer-ground-villagers-nervous.

After a new council (which called itself the Newtok Village Council) won: Charles Enoch, “With a New Tribal Council, Newtok Re-Establishes Efforts for Relocation,” KYUK, September 22, 2015, https://www.ktoo.org/2015/09/21/new-tribal-council-newtok-re-establishes-efforts-relocation/; Suzanne Goldenberg, “Relocation of Alaska’s Sinking Newtok Village Halted,” Guardian, August 5, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/05/alaska-newtok-climate-change; Rachel D’Oro, “Newtok Power Struggle Heats Up as New Leaders Try to Evict Old Ones,” Anchorage Daily News, December 5, 2015, updated May 31, 2016, https://www.adn.com/rural-alaska/article/newtok-power-struggle-heats-new-leaders-try-evict-old-ones/2015/12/05/.

Work on the houses and on a new Mertarvik Evacuation Center: Lisa Demer, “Audits Question Spending for Still-Unfinished Evacuation Center,” Anchorage Daily News, August 30, 2015, updated May 31, 2016, https://www.adn.com/rural-alaska/article/audits-question-spending-still-unfinished-evacuation-center/2015/08/30/.

A particularly monstrous one: Alana Semuels, “The Village That Will Be Swept Away,” Atlantic, August 30, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/08/alaska-village-climate-change/402604/.

In May 2014, a legal ruling from the U.S. Department of the Interior: Newtok Village v. Patrick, Order Denying Motion to Set Aside Default Judgment (Docket 65), National Indian Law Library, February 25, 2021, https://narf.org/nill/bulletins/federal/documents/newtok_v_patrick.html.

“The White Seal,” one of the stories: Rudyard Kipling, “The White Seal,” in The Jungle Book (New York: Century, 1894), 135–71.

An animated version of the story: “The White Seal (1975),” Chuck Jones Enterprises, DailyMotion video, 24:26, posted by “Film Gorillas,” https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x244acq.

But the people of St. Paul, the Unangan: Nathaniel Herz, “For Decades, the Government Stood Between the Unangan People and the Seals They Subsist On. Now, That’s Changing,” Alaska Public Media, March 7, 2019, https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/03/06/for-decades-the-government-stood-between-the-unangan-people-and-the-seals-they-subsist-on-now-thats-changing/; Larry Merculieff, “The Key to Conflict Resolution: Reconnection with the Sacred; The Pribilof Aleut Case Study,” Cultural Survival Quarterly, September 1995, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/key-conflict-resolution-reconnection-sacred-pribilof-aleut; E. J. Guarino, “Slaves of the Northern Fur Trade: An American Tragedy,” King Galleries, January 1, 2015, https://kinggalleries.com/slaves-northern-fur-trade-american-tragedy/.

In some traditional stories: Ann Fienup-Riordan, The Nelson Island Eskimo: Social Structure and Ritual Distribution (Anchorage: Alaska Pacific University Press, 1983), 177–81; Fienup-Riordan and Rearden, Our Nelson Island Stories, xvi.

Romy Cadiente, who had been hired: Rachel Waldholz, “Newtok Asks: Can the U.S. Deal with Slow-Motion Climate Disasters?” KTOO, January 6, 2017, https://www.ktoo.org/2017/01/06/newtok-asks-can-u-s-deal-slow-motion-climate-disasters/.

In January 2017, in the last days: U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, Preliminary Damage Assessment Report: Newtok Village—Flooding, Persistent Erosion, and Permafrost Degradation; Denial, January 18, 2017, https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/PDAReportDenial-NewtokVillage.pdf.

On a Sunday morning in late March 2017, Tom John: Anna Rose MacArthur, “Search Continues into Its Third Week for Missing Newtok Seal Hunter Tom John,” KYUK, April 12, 2017, https://www.kyuk.org/post/search-continues-its-third-week-missing-newtok-seal-hunter-tom-john; “Tom John,” Charley Project, last updated June 8, 2018, http://charleyproject.org/case/tom-john; Jon-Paul Rios, “Coast Guard Suspends Search for Overdue Hunter Near Newtok,” Alaska Native News, March 30, 2017, https://alaska-native-news.com/coast-guard-suspends-search-for-overdue-hunter-near-newtok/27482/.

6: The Explosion

Some of the reporting in Chapters 6 and 12 originally appeared in my article “From Vacant City Lots to Food on the Table,” YES! magazine, Fall 2010.

home, n.: home, n.2., and home, v., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, ed. David B. Guralnik (n.p.: World, 1978), 670–71.

The city of Richmond grew up: “History,” Chevron Richmond, accessed October 23, 2021, https://richmond.chevron.com/about/history; Shirley Ann Wilson Moore, To Place Our Deeds: The African American Community in Richmond, California, 1910–1963 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

“Wonder City,” the port and shipyard humming: Frederick J. Hulaniski, The History of Contra Costa County, California (Berkeley, CA: Elms, 1917), 327.

part of the Great Migration: Mahlia Posey, “A New Great Migration: The Disappearance of the Black Middle Class,” Richmond Confidential, December 10, 2015, https://richmondconfidential.org/2015/12/10/a-new-great-migration-the-disappearance-of-the-black-middle-class/.

many of the same troubles in California as in the South: Richard Rothstein, chap. 1 in The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (New York: Liveright, 2017); “Climate Safe Neighborhoods,” Groundwork Richmond, accessed February 3, 2021, https://gwmke.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=720a1dca15ec4265a94d012cf06fbbf4; Gary Kamiya, “When WWII Brought Blacks to the East Bay, Whites Fought for Segregation,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 23, 2018, https://www.sfchronicle.com/chronicle_vault/article/When-WWII-brought-blacks-to-the-East-Bay-whites-13417228.php.

“They settled in the foothills”: Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Random House, 2010), 236.

And its downtown restaurants: Jeffrey Callen, “History of Richmond’s Iron Triangle,” February 3, 2016, https://www.slideshare.net/JeffreyCallenPhD/history-of-richmonds-iron-triangle?from_action=save.

Some chroniclers of Richmond: Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park, California, outdoor exhibit and interpretive signs, April 15, 2014; “Eddie Eaton: In Search of the California Dream; From Houston, Texas, to Richmond, California, 1943,” interview by Judith K. Dunning in On the Waterfront: An Oral History of Richmond, California, 1986, https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb0b69n7gm&brand=default&doc.view=entire_text.

This kind of discrimination: Nikole Hannah-Jones, “From the Magazine: ‘It Is Time for Reparations,’” New York Times Magazine, June 24, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/24/magazine/reparations-slavery.html.

Even the company’s seemingly benign: Tom Lochner, “Richmond’s Hilltop Mall Rebrands on Way to Hoped-For Revival,” East Bay Times, September 5, 2017, https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/09/05/richmonds-hilltop-mall-rebrands-on-way-to-hoped-for-revival/; Steve Early, Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City (Boston: Beacon Press, 2017), 25.

A half block away and around the corner was a local history museum: “Richmond, Contra Costa County: San Francisco Bay/Delta/Sacramento Area, San Francisco Bay Area Region; Richmond Museum,” Carnegie Libraries of California, accessed June 30, 2020, https://www.carnegie-libraries.org/california/richmond.html.

But in the mid-1980s, the crack cocaine epidemic: Roland G. Fryer, Jr., Paul S. Heaton, Steven D. Levitt, and Kevin M. Murphy, “Measuring Crack Cocaine and Its Impact,” Economic Inquiry 51, no. 3 (July 2013): 1651–81, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2012.00506.x; Deborah J. Vagins and Jesselyn McCurdy, Cracks in the System: Twenty Years of the Unjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law (New York: American Civil Liberties Union, October 2006).

Then, on an April day in 1989: Patrick Lee, “Chevron Fined $877,000 for Refinery Fire,” Los Angeles Times, September 27, 1989, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-27-fi-266-story.html; “Chevron Refinery Incidents,” SFGATE, March 26, 1999, https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/CHEVRON-REFINERY-INCIDENTS-3091498.php; “Chevron Oil Refinery Richmond; Richmond, CA,” NOAA Incident News, April 10, 1989, accessed October 23, 2021, https://incidentnews.noaa.gov/incident/6689#!.

In a 2009 poll, 57 percent of voters of color: David Metz and Lori Weigel, “Key Findings from National Voter Survey on Conservation Among Voters of Color” (memorandum from Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates and Public Opinion Strategies, October 6, 2009); Matthew Ballew, Edward Maibach, John Kotcher, Parrish Bergquist, Seth Rosenthal, Jennifer Marlon, and Anthony Leiserowitz, “Which Racial/Ethnic Groups Care Most About Climate Change?” Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, April 16, 2020, https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/race-and-climate-change/.

But Hurricane Katrina offered a prelude: Andrea Thompson, “10 Years Later: Was Warming to Blame for Katrina?” Climate Central, August 27, 2015, https://www.climatecentral.org/news/katrina-was-climate-change-to-blame-19377; Scott Gold, “Trapped in the Superdome: Refuge Becomes a Hellhole,” Seattle Times, September 1, 2005, https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/trapped-in-the-superdome-refuge-becomes-a-hellhole/.

When the levees that were supposed to protect the city broke: “Lower Ninth Ward Levee Breaches in 2005,” New Orleans Historical, accessed October 7, 2021, https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/288; “Lower Ninth Ward Statistical Area,” Data Center, updated February 24, 2021, https://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/neighborhood-data/district-8/lower-ninth-ward/.

“The income disparity between rich and poor is so great”: Gary Rivlin, “White New Orleans Has Recovered from Hurricane Katrina. Black New Orleans Has Not,” TalkPoverty, August 29, 2016, https://talkpoverty.org/2016/08/29/white-new-orleans-recovered-hurricane-katrina-black-new-orleans-not/.

Already, people of color and anyone living in poverty: Michael Mascarenhas, Ryken Grattet, and Kathleen Mege, “Toxic Waste and Race in Twenty-First Century America: Neighborhood Poverty and Racial Composition in the Siting of Hazardous Waste Facilities,” Environment and Society 12, no. 1 (September 1, 2021): 108–26, https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2021.120107.

A 2009 study found that in Los Angeles: Rachel Morello-Frosch, Manuel Pastor, James Sadd, and Seth B. Shonkoff, The Climate Gap: Inequalities in How Climate Change Hurts Americans and How to Close the Gap, May 2009, https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/242/docs/The_Climate_Gap_Full_Report_FINAL.pdf.

Already, Black American communities face greater risks from flooding: Jack Graham, “Black Neighborhoods in the US Face Higher Flooding Risks Due to Climate Change,” Global Citizen, March 16, 2021, https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/black-neighborhoods-flooding-climate-change/.

In sea level rise projections, these landscapes: Jean Tepperman, “Oakland’s Poorest Neighborhoods Will Be the Most Susceptible to Flooding Due to Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise,” East Bay Express, April 19, 2017, https://eastbayexpress.com/oaklands-poorest-neighborhoods-will-be-the-most-susceptible-to-flooding-due-to-climate-change-and-sea-level-rise-2-1/.

about two-thirds of global carbon emissions: IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change; Working Group III Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415416.

home to 55 percent of the global population: “Urban Development: Overview,” World Bank, accessed July 15, 2020, https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/overview.

more than 60 percent of carbon emissions: “Cities and Pollution,” United Nations, accessed October 24, 2021, https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/climate-solutions/cities-pollution.

The dictionary definition of front line: front line, n.A.1.b., OED Online.

In 1991, poet Adrienne Rich wrote: Adrienne Rich, “An Atlas of the Difficult World,” in An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems, 1988–1991 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991).

full of both toxicity and “human wreckage”: Early, Refinery Town.

According to an extensive 2011 investigation: Jim Morris, Chris Hamby, and M. B. Pell, “Regulatory Flaws, Repeated Violations Put Oil Refinery Workers at Risk,” Center for Public Integrity, published February 28, 2011, updated May 19, 2014, https://publicintegrity.org/inequality-poverty-opportunity/workers-rights/regulatory-flaws-repeated-violations-put-oil-refinery-workers-at-risk/.

between 2001 and 2003, the EPA noted: Antonia Juhasz, The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry—and What We Must Do to Stop It (New York: HarperCollins, 2009).

Violent crime had been decreasing: Steve Spiker, Junious Williams, Rachel Diggs, Bill Heiser, and Nic Jay Aulston, Violent Crime in Richmond: An Analysis of Violent Crime in Richmond, California from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2006, Urban Strategies Council, Oakland, February 26, 2007, revised March 29, 2007.

from Black Panthers offering free breakfast to schoolchildren in the 1960s: Nancy DeVille, “New Exhibit Highlights Richmond’s Connection to Black Panthers,” Richmond Pulse, January 31, 2016, https://richmondpulse.org/2016/01/31/new-exhibit-highlights-richmonds-connection-to-black-panthers/; Early, Refinery Town.

A homegrown Richmond environmental group: Jacob Soiffer, “Emergence of Environmental Justice in Richmond,” FoundSF, 2015, http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Emergence_of_Environmental_Justice_in_Richmond; Sara Bernard, “Henry Clark and Three Decades of Environmental Justice,” Richmond Confidential, December 6, 2012, https://richmondconfidential.org/2012/12/06/henry-clark-and-three-decades-of-environmental-justice/.

The Asian Pacific Environmental Network began organizing: “Our History,” Asian Pacific Environmental Network, accessed October 24, 2021, https://apen4ej.org/our-history/.

A group of local activists: Early, Refinery Town.

That same autumn, locals set up a sit-in: Chip Johnson, “Making a Bold Stand for Peace: In Richmond’s Tough Iron Triangle Neighborhood, Residents Frustrated with a Spate of Killings Erect an Encampment to Help Stem the Violence,” SFGATE, October 11, 2006, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/johnson/article/Making-a-bold-stand-for-peace-In-Richmond-s-2468468.php.

The word tilth refers: tilth, n., OED Online.

In 2007, a thunderous bang: Bay Area Air Quality Monitoring District, Incident Report: Chevron Richmond Refinery (Site #AA0010), Richmond, CA, January 15, 2007, accessed October 24, 2021, https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/compliance-and-enforcement/incident-reports/i011507_chevron_update.pdf.

To borrow the words of Adrienne Rich: Rich, “An Atlas of the Difficult World.”

In the fall of 2009, a teenage girl: “Police: As Many as 20 Present at Gang Rape Outside School Dance,” CNN, October 28, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/27/california.gang.rape.investigation/index.html.

In 2009, the old Ford assembly plant: Bridgette Meinhold, “Historic Ford Factory Transformed into SunPower Photovoltaics Headquarters,” Inhabitat, February 21, 2011, https://inhabitat.com/historic-ford-factory-transformed-into-sunpower-photovoltaics-headquarters/.

Meanwhile, a Safeway closed: Mitzi Mock, “Why Few Grocery Stores Come to Richmond,” Richmond Confidential, November 17, 2011, https://richmondconfidential.org/2011/11/17/why-few-grocery-stores-come-to-richmond/.

Meanwhile, a new study said: Hasan Dudar, “Childhood Obesity in Contra Costa on the Rise,” Richmond Confidential, November 10, 2011, https://richmondconfidential.org/2011/11/10/childhood-obesity-in-contra-costa-on-the-rise/.

Meanwhile, a graffiti artist: Robert Rogers, “‘Nacho’ Defaces City, Leaves Few Clues,” Richmond Confidential, February 25, 2011, https://richmondconfidential.org/2011/02/25/nacho-defaces-city-leaves-bitter-taste/.

A small Richmond seedling company sold: William Harless, “A New Source of Fertilizer in Richmond—Koi Fish,” Richmond Confidential, September 21, 2011, https://richmondconfidential.org/2011/09/21/a-new-source-of-fertilizer-in-richmond-koi-fish/.

A world-famous submarine designer: Hannah Dreier, “Richmond Sub in Million-Dollar Race to the Bottom of the Sea,” Mercury News, August 17, 2011, updated August 13, 2016, https://www.mercurynews.com/2011/08/17/richmond-sub-in-million-dollar-race-to-the-bottom-of-the-sea/.

A congregation in the Iron Triangle: Christopher Connelly, “Efforts to Save Iron Triangle Church End in Arrests,” Richmond Confidential, March 18, 2011, https://richmondconfidential.org/2011/03/18/efforts-to-save-iron-triangle-church-end-in-arrests/.

That summer was also the 110th anniversary: Chris Treadway, “‘Other Days, Other Ways: A Refinery Saga’ Opens Tuesday in the Seaver Gallery at the Richmond Museum of History, 400 Nevin Ave.,” Contra Costa Times, August 6, 2012.

And at about 6:30 that evening: U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, Final Investigation Report: Chevron Richmond Refinery; Pipe Rupture and Fire, January 2015, https://www.csb.gov/chevron-refinery-fire/; Robert J. Lopez, “Huge Fire Continues to Rage at Chevron Oil Refinery in Richmond,” Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2012, https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/crews-battle-richmond-oil-refinery-fire-richmond.html.

7: The Home Fires Burning

home, v.: home, v., Merriam-Webster, accessed September 11, 2021, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/home; the Britannica Library Reference Center accessed through the Seattle Public Library.

You could call it a karmic adjustment: Carlene Anders told me her personal details during interviews, but much about her experience with the Carlton Complex was also artfully reported here: Michelle Nijhuis, “As Wildfires Get Bigger, Is There Any Way to Be Ready?” High Country News, August 3, 2015, https://www.hcn.org/issues/47.13/after-a-record-setting-wildfire-a-washington-county-prepares-for-the-next-one.

It’s useful to have what’s called a “long-term recovery group”: National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, Long Term Recovery Guide, 2012, https://www.nvoad.org/wp-content/uploads/longtermrecoveryguide-final2012.pdf.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency eventually supplied: Jim Carlton, “FEMA Rejects Aid for Residents Who Lost Homes to Washington Wildfires,” Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2014, https://www.wsj.com/articles/fema-rejects-aid-for-residents-who-lost-homes-to-washington-wildfires-1407974651.

teams of volunteers: Sydney Brownstone, “The ‘New Normal’ in Washington State,” Stranger, September 2, 2015, https://www.thestranger.com/news/feature/2015/09/02/22795813/the-new-normal-in-washington-state.

“Disaster chaplains”: Disaster Chaplain Code of Ethics and Guiding Principles, Nebraska Disaster Chaplain Network of Interchurch Ministries of Nebraska, accessed June 4, 2021, http://cretscmhd.psych.ucla.edu/nola/Video/Clergy/Articles/Ecumenical/Disaster_Chaplain_Code_of_Ethics_and_Guiding_Principles.pdf.

The Pateros mayor stepped down shortly: Lisa Cowan, “Pateros Mayor Steps Down After Losing House to Wildfire,” Seattle Times, August 12, 2014, https://www.seattletimes.com/news/pateros-mayor-steps-down-after-losing-house-to-wildfire/.

fire-resistant siding and metal roofs, which are not generally combustible: David Bueche and Tim Foley, FireWise Construction: Site Design and Building Materials; Based on the 2009 International Wildland-Urban Interface Code, Colorado State Forest Service, accessed October 24, 2021, https://static.colostate.edu/client-files/csfs/pdfs/firewise-construction2012.pdf.

The first home would go: K. C. Mehaffey, “House Blessings Celebrate Recovery from Wildfire,” Wenatchee World, January 25, 2016, https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/local/house-blessings-celebrate-recovery-from-wildfire/article_1bebc57c-9dc4-5a4b-855f-4b6c0409c5a5.html.

A heat wave hit the Pacific Northwest in June: Andrea Thompson, “Soaring Temps in Pacific Northwest Shattered Records,” Climate Central, July 1, 2015, https://www.climatecentral.org/news/record-temps-pacific-northwest-19179.

A group of fires had lit and were spreading: Jim Kershner, “Lightning Storms Ignite Okanogan Complex Fires, Which Will Soon Grow into Some of the Biggest in Washington’s Worst-Ever Wildfire Year, on August 14, 2015,” HistoryLink.org, April 19, 2016, https://www.historylink.org/file/11218.

another wildfire, called the Twisp River Fire: Washington State Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Forest Service, Twisp River Fire Fatalities and Entrapments: Interagency Learning Review Status Report, November 18, 2105, https://www.wildfirelessons.net/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=77159beb-18bd-bdbc-57ad-12fe11d38cd2&forceDialog=0.

news reports said the Okanogan Complex: Ryan Maye Handy, “Okanogan Complex Largest Fire in Washington History,” Wildfire Today, August 25, 2015, https://wildfiretoday.com/tag/okanagan-fire/; Evan Bush and Hal Bernton, “Okanogan Complex Wildfire Now Biggest in State History,” Seattle Times, August 24, 2015, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/northwest/monday-fire-update/.

Susan and her colleagues had decided to develop a series of computer simulations: “The Reburn Project: Evaluation of Burn Mosaics on Subsequent Wildfire Behavior, Severity and Fire Management Strategies,” University of Washington, accessed October 24, 2021, https://depts.washington.edu/nwfire/reburn/index.html.

the Rocky Hull Fire, which had burned down more than thirty houses: Havillah Community, “Havillah Community Wildfire Protection Plan Update,” accessed October 24, 2021, https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/rp_burn_cwpphavillah.pdf.

In one volume, he ran across an anecdote: Robert T. Boyd, Indians, Fire, and the Land in the Pacific Northwest (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1999), preview at https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/indians-fire-and-land-in-pacific-northwest.

eventually collaborating with a local fire ecologist: Richard Schellhaas, Anne Conway, and Don Spurbeck, A Report to the Nature Conservancy on the Historical and Current Stand Structure in the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area, Schellhaas Forestry, December 13, 2009; Richard Schellhaas, Don Spurbeck, and Anne Conway, Sinlahekin Wildlife Area Phase III Fire History: A Report to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Schellhaas Forestry, June 28, 2019.

Lime Belt Fire, one of the five that would merge into the complex: Central Washington BAER, Lime Belt Fire: BAER Briefing, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, November 15, 2015, http://centralwashingtonfirerecovery.info/2015/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/LimeBeltBriefing.pdf.

the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife would describe this fire: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Scotch Creek and Sinlahekin Wildlife Areas Management Plan, April 2017.

In mid-2019, it was done: Justus Caudell, “Recovery Group Hands Keys to Bests, Staffords,” Tribal Tribune, July 1, 2019, http://www.tribaltribune.com/news/article_d9cccfbc-9c13-11e9-b574-4fe20b0d6988.html.

“The indigenous worldview emphasizes”: Robin Kimmerer and Frank Kanawha Lake, “Maintaining the Mosaic: The Role of Indigenous Burning in Land Management,” Journal of Forestry 99, no. 11 (November 2001): 36–41.

It had burned furiously three years previously: U.S. Forest Service, Norse Peak Fire 2017: Burned-Area Report, October 19, 2017, http://centralwashingtonfirerecovery.info/2017/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Norse-Peak-Report.pdf.

the Palmer Fire scorched nearly eighteen thousand acres: “Palmer Fire Information,” InciWeb, Incident Information System, accessed June 10, 2021, https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7029/.

The Seattle Times alluded: Hal Bernton, “Northwest Fire Season: Plenty of Blazes but Total Area Burned Much Smaller Than Recent Years,” Seattle Times, August 21, 2020, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/northwest-fire-season-plenty-of-blazes-but-total-area-burned-much-smaller-than-recent-years/.

As Labor Day approached, a local television news website: Erin Mayovsky, “Warming Up for the Holiday with Record Temps Mid Week. Plus, Red Flag Warnings Across the State,” Q13 FOX, September 6, 2020, https://www.q13fox.com/weather/warming-up-for-the-holiday-with-record-temps-mid-week-plus-red-flag-warnings-across-the-state.

In Okanogan County, a fire called the Cold Springs: “Cold Springs Fire Information,” InciWeb, Incident Information System, accessed October 24, 2021, https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7161/; Jennifer Forsmann, Mariah Valles, and Katherine Barner, “UPDATE: Cold Springs and Pearl Hill Fires Burns 337K Acres Collectively,” KHQ, September 9, 2020, https://www.khq.com/fires/update-cold-springs-and-pearl-hill-fires-burns-337k-acres-collectively/article_a0bd3b38-f114-11ea-b830-4bdb05c15e42.html; Marcy Stamper, “Progress Reported on Containing Cold Springs, Pearl Hill Fires,” Methow Valley News, September 16, 2020, https://methowvalleynews.com/2020/09/16/progress-reported-on-containing-cold-springs-pearl-hill-fires/.

A young couple who had been camping: Chris Thomas, “Citrus Heights Couple’s 1-Year-Old Son Dies as Family Tried to Outrun Cold Springs Fire,” ABC10, September 11, 2020, https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/citrus-heights/citrus-heights-native-burned-while-fleeing-cold-springs-fire/103-f42a8099-8255-4e75-af4c-cf404dee0e57.

a 15,000-acre fire ate up: Rebecca Moss, “A Year After Fire Destroyed Malden, a Grieving Town Slowly Rebuilds,” Seattle Times, September 5, 2021, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/the-day-a-wildfire-took-malden/.

On Tuesday, a fire: Megan Farmer, “Photos: Wildfires Burning Near Tacoma Suburbs,” KUOW, September 9, 2020, https://www.kuow.org/stories/fires-continue-across-washington-state; Drew Mikkelsen, “‘Catastrophic’: Gov. Inslee Tours Sumner Grade Fire in Bonney Lake,” KING5, September 9, 2020, https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/wildfire/gov-inslee-calls-sumner-grade-fire-among-most-catastrophic-in-washington-history/281-132ec1ec-6ee9-4503-bf9e-86cfc3df57c6; Shelby Miller and Graham Johnson, “Sumner Grade Fire Slowing After Destroying Four Homes,” KIRO7, September 10, 2020, https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/sumner-grade-fire-slowing-after-destroying-four-homes/EL2QD4CQMJCYVKMJD7IZAQJAFQ/.

In Oregon, “firefighters fought at least thirty-five large blazes”: Sharon Bernstein and Andrew Hay, “Oregon Wildfires Destroy Five Towns, as Three Fatalities Confirmed in California,” Reuters, September 9, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-wildfires-idUKKBN26036O; Andrew Freedman, Jason Samenow, Kim Bellware, and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, “Western Wildfires: Evacuations in California and Oregon as Destructive Fire Outbreak Engulfs Region,” Washington Post, September 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/09/western-fires-live-updates/; Jay Barmann, “Massive Evacuation Orders Come as Oregon Wildfire Nears Portland Suburb,” SFist, September 11, 2020, https://sfist.com/2020/09/11/massive-evacuation-orders-come-as-oregon-wildfire-nears-portland-suburb/.

By the middle of that week: Farmer, “Wildfires Burning”; Aimee Green, “Air Quality in Portland and Parts of Oregon Is Worse Than in Beijing or Mexico City, Due to Wildfire Smoke,” Oregonian, September 10, 2020, https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/09/air-quality-in-portland-is-worse-than-in-beijing-mumbai-or-mexico-city-due-to-wildfire-smoke.html; Pat Dooris, “More Than 800,000 Acres of Oregon Burned So Far in Historic Wildfires This Week,” KGW8, September 9, 2020, https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/wildfire/mega-fires-rage-across-oregon/283-a6bfb00c-a037-4251-95c3-f7285d168ea3.

The governor of Oregon reported that five towns: “Gov. Brown: Towns of Detroit, Blue River, Vida, Phoenix and Talent Are ‘Substantially Destroyed,’” KGW8, September 9, 2020, https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/wildfire/gov-brown-press-conference-on-wildfires-in-oregon/283-d8014ecc-cf04-4ba5-bb05-3609141542ab.

At least a couple of the fire starts: Jamie Parfitt, “FireWatch: One Year Later, There’s Still No Suspect in Almeda Fire Investigation,” KDRV, September 7, 2021, https://www.kdrv.com/content/news/FireWatch-One-year-later-theres-still-no-suspect-in-Almeda-Fire-investigation-575259561.html; Tony Buhr, “Sheriff Says It’s Unlikely Antifa Started Cold Springs Fire,” Wenatchee World, September 13, 2020, https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/paywalloff/sheriff-says-its-unlikely-antifa-started-cold-springs-fire/article_07305fd8-f5e0-11ea-b5ba-0b8f62692c57.html.

Rumors surged on social media: Madeleine Carlisle, “FBI Calls Rumors of Extremists Starting Oregon Wildfires ‘Untrue,’” Time, September 12, 2020, https://time.com/5888371/oregon-wildfires-antifa-proud-boys-rumors-false/.

In Northern California, the August Complex Fire: J. D. Morris, “California’s New Largest-Ever Wildfire: North Coast’s August Complex Shatters Record Set Two Years Ago,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 10, 2020, https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/North-Coast-complex-is-now-California-s-second-15554767.php.

Three other California fires: Alex Meier, “SCU, LNU Lightning Complex Fires Become Top 5 Largest Wildfires in CA History,” ABC7 San Francisco, October 3, 2020, https://abc7news.com/lnu-lightning-complex-scu-size-largest-fire-california-history-cal/6383626/; “Top 20 Largest California Wildfires,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, accessed February 16, 2022, https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/4jandlhh/top20_acres.pdf.

National Guard helicopters airlifted: Alex Wigglesworth, “As Fire ‘Engulfed Everything’ Around Campers, an Air Rescue Like No Other in the Sierra,” Los Angeles Times, September 6, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-06/dramatic-night-airlift-rescues-scores-of-victims-trapped-by-creek-fire-at-mammoth-pool.

The smoke rose into the atmosphere: Anna Buchmann, “See West Coast Wildfire Smoke Get Sucked into a Cyclone over the Pacific Ocean,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 14, 2020, https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/See-West-Coast-wildfire-smoke-get-sucked-into-a-15565759.php.

A few hundred evacuees: Enrique Pérez de la Rosa, “Fire-Evacuated Farmworkers From Bridgeport Slept in a Brewster Park as the Pearl Hill Fire Burned,” Northwest Public Broadcasting, September 18, 2020, https://www.nwpb.org/2020/09/18/fire-evacuated-farmworkers-from-bridgeport-slept-in-a-brewster-park-as-the-pearl-hill-fire-burned/.

In the November 2021 mayoral election: “Election 2021: Getting to Know the Candidates,” Omak-Okanogan County Chronicle, October 13, 2021, https://www.omakchronicle.com/free/election-2021-getting-to-know-the-candidates/article_3f71274c-2b81-11ec-b4be-3bcd03ead03f.html.

8: Finding Home Ground

In her childhood in Kentucky, Black essayist and scholar bell hooks: bell hooks, Belonging: A Culture of Place (New York: Routledge, 2009), 121–24.

Localism is a preference: localism, n.1.a., OED Online.

As a student at Stanford University, bell hooks worked: hooks, Belonging, 6–24, 53–58.

In the rural South, for instance, discrimination in property law: Summer Sewell, “There Were Nearly a Million Black Farmers in 1920. Why Have They Disappeared?” Guardian, April 29, 2019, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/29/why-have-americas-black-farmers-disappeared.

The acronym NIMBY probably first appeared: Danny De Vaal, “What Is a Nimby, What Does the Acronym Stand For and Where Did It Come From?” Sun (U.K.), March 5, 2018, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5727581/nimby-acronym-where-did-it-come-from-building/; “NIMBY,” Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed October 24, 2021, https://www.etymonline.com/word/nimby.

With a family fortune derived from shipbuilding, coal, and steel, Ridley: Patrick Cosgrave, “Obituary: Lord Ridley of Liddesdale,” Independent, March 6, 1993, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-ridley-of-liddesdale-1495860.html.

When Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister in 1979: Margaret Thatcher, “Nicholas Ridley Memorial Lecture,” November 22, 1996, full transcript published by Margaret Thatcher Foundation, https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108368; Christine Berry, “Thatcher Had a Battle Plan for Her Economic Revolution—Now the Left Needs One Too,” openDemocracy, October 28, 2019, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/thatcher-had-a-battle-plan-for-her-economic-revolution-now-the-left-needs-one-too/.

Initially, neoliberalism was partly a reaction against communism: George Monbiot, “Neoliberalism—the Ideology at the Root of All Our Problems,” Guardian, April 15, 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot.

I am simplifying and narrowing this discussion: Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014); Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (New York: Picador, 2010).

the British government was pushing for new nuclear power development: Ian Welsh, “The NIMBY Syndrome: Its Significance in the History of the Nuclear Debate in Britain,” British Journal for the History of Science 26, no. 1 (1993): 15–32.

Around the same time in the United States, Wendell Berry: Wendell Berry, “Higher Education and Home Defense,” in Home Economics: Fourteen Essays (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2009), 49–53.

In 1995, Friends of the Earth revealed: “Nirex and Their Nuclear Waste Dump,” Nuclear Monitor, June 16, 1995, https://wiseinternational.org/nuclear-monitor/433–434/nirex-and-their-nuclear-waste-dump.

In 1997, the group leaked a memo: Rob Edwards, “Nirex Betrays Nerves over Nuclear Dump,” New Scientist, January 25, 1997, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15320660-900-nirex-betrays-nerves-over-nuclear-dump/.

Ridley himself was later labeled: “Would YOU Live Next to a Nimby?” May 21, 2002, BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2000000.stm.

In 2011, Time magazine named NIMBYism: Bryan Walsh, “Top 10 Green Trends: 5. NIMBYism,” December 7, 2011, http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101344_2101393_2101398,00.html.

Cape Wind, a proposed offshore wind power: Amanda Little, “RFK Jr. and Other Prominent Enviros Face Off over Cape Cod Wind Farm,” Grist, January 13, 2006, https://grist.org/article/capecod/; Katharine Q. Seelye, “After 16 Years, Hopes for Cape Cod Wind Farm Float Away,” New York Times, December 19, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/us/offshore-cape-wind-farm.html.

Kennedy insisted his primary concern: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., “An Ill Wind Off Cape Cod,” New York Times, December 16, 2005, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/opinion/an-ill-wind-off-cape-cod.html.

though some evidence from the U.K. and Belgium: “Offshore Renewable Energy Improves Habitat, Increases Fish,” Rhode Island Sea Grant, June 26, 2020, https://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/offshore-renewable-energy-improves-habitat-increases-fish/.

In response, a group of prominent environmentalists: “Over 150 Activists Send Letter Asking Kennedy to Reconsider Position,” Grist, January 7, 2006, https://grist.org/article/enviros-call-on-rfk-jr-to-support-cape-wind-project/.

For one thing, there is no clear definition: Kate Burningham, Julie Barnett, and Diana Thrush, “The Limitations of the NIMBY Concept for Understanding Public Engagement with Renewable Energy Technologies: A Literature Review,” University of Surrey, Working Paper 1.3, August 2006.

many opponents of windmills simply distrust: Eric R. A. N. Smith and Holly Klick, “Explaining NIMBY Opposition to Wind Power” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, Massachusetts, August 29, 2007).

After the world’s first major tidal energy generator: Patrick Devine-Wright, “Place Attachment and Public Acceptance of Renewable Energy: A Tidal Energy Case Study,” Journal of Environmental Psychology 31, no. 4 (December 2011): 336–43, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2011.07.001.

According to a 2021 report from the real estate company Redfin: Lily Katz, Sebastian Sandoval-Olascoaga, and Sheharyar Bokhari, “39% of Utah Homes Face High Fire Risk—a Bigger Share Than Other Western States,” Redfin Real Estate News, June 30, 2021, https://www.redfin.com/news/wildfire-real-estate-risk-2021/.

Today, the United States already has $20 billion in expected real estate losses: “Highlights from ‘The Cost of Climate: America’s Growing Flood Risk,’” First Street Foundation, February 22, 2021, https://firststreet.org/research-lab/published-research/highlights-from-the-cost-of-climate-americas-growing-flood-risk/.

He calls this phenomenon soliphilia: Glenn A. Albrecht, “Soliphilia,” Psychoterratica (blog), September 8, 2019, https://glennaalbrecht.wordpress.com/2019/09/08/soliphilia/.

Chinese American geographer Yi-Fu Tuan came up: Yi-Fu Tuan, Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).

Consider one study, for instance, from the Indian state of Odisha: Sasmita Mishra, Sanjoy Mazumdar, and Damodar Suar, “Place Attachment and Flood Preparedness,” Journal of Environmental Psychology 30, no. 2 (June 2010): 187–97, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.11.005.

In other studies in the western United States, Canada, and Australia: Menka Bihari and Robert Ryan, “Influence of Social Capital on Community Preparedness for Wildfires,” Landscape and Urban Planning 106, no. 3 (June 15, 2012): 253–61, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.03.011; Charis E. Anton and Carmen Lawrence, “Does Place Attachment Predict Wildfire Mitigation and Preparedness? A Comparison of Wildland–Urban Interface and Rural Communities,” Environmental Management 57, no. 1 (January 1, 2016): 148–62, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0597-7; Robin S. Cox and Karen-Marie Elah Perry, “Like a Fish out of Water: Reconsidering Disaster Recovery and the Role of Place and Social Capital in Community Disaster Resilience,” American Journal of Community Psychology 48, no. 3–4 (December 2011): 395–411, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1007/s10464-011-9427-0.

Hurricane (or Superstorm) Sandy, which slammed against the eastern United States: Ross Toro, “Hurricane Sandy’s Impact (Infographic),” Live Science, October 29, 2013, https://www.livescience.com/40774-hurricane-sandy-s-impact-infographic.html.

One set of places that became important after Hurricane Sandy: Joana Chan, Bryce DuBois, and Keith G. Tidball, “Refuges of Local Resilience: Community Gardens in Post-Sandy New York City,” Urban Forestry and Urban Greening 14, no. 3 (2015): 625–35, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2015.06.005.

Take the case of Staten Island: Elizabeth Rush, Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2018), 113–32.

In a survey led by a psychology Ph.D. student: Sherri Brokopp Binder, “Resilience and Postdisaster Relocation: A Study of New York’s Home Buyout Plan in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy” (Ph.D. diss., University of Hawai‘i, 2014).

When bell hooks was a girl: hooks, Belonging 46, 69–88, 143–52, 203.

9: Living with Water

home waters, n., and home wind, n.: OED Online.

On a warming planet, these are already becoming: Thomas R. Knutson, Maya V. Chung, Gabriel Vecchi, Jingru Sun, Tsung-Lin Hsieh, and Adam J. P. Smith, “Climate Change Is Probably Increasing the Intensity of Tropical Cyclones,” ScienceBrief Review, March 2021.

Other kinds of storms are also growing more severe: Peter Ciurczak, “It’s Not Just You: Nor’Easters Really Have Gotten More Frequent and More Intense,” Boston Indicators, March 22, 2018, https://www.bostonindicators.org/article-pages/2018/march/nor-easters; John Walsh, Donald Wuebbles, Katharine Hayhoe, James Kossin, Kenneth Kunkel, Graeme Stephens, Peter Thorne, et al., “Our Changing Climate,” in Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment, ed. Jerry M. Melillo, Terese (T. C.) Richmond, and Gary Yohe (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2014), 19–67, https://doi.org/10.7930/J0KW5CXT.

A second is via high tides: “What Is a Perigean Spring Tide?” U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, accessed April 30, 2021, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/perigean-spring-tide.html.

nuisance flooding: William V. Sweet and John J. Marra, 2015 State of U.S. “Nuisance” Tidal Flooding, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services and National Centers for Environmental Information, June 8, 2016, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-content/sotc/national/2016/may/sweet-marra-nuisance-flooding-2015.pdf.

Early on a Monday in May 2019, Andrea Dutton: Andrea Dutton, “The Past, Present, and Future of Sea Level Rise Along the Florida Coast” (presentation at Keeping History Above Water, St. Augustine, FL, May 6, 2019).

In this part of the twenty-first century, the global rate of sea level rise: Joseph F. Donoghue, “Sea Level History of the Northern Gulf of Mexico Coast and Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the Near Future,” Climatic Change 107, no. 1–2 (July 2011): 17–33, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0077-x; Andrea D. Hawkes, Andrew C. Kemp, Jeffrey P. Donnelly, Benjamin P. Horton, W. Richard Peltier, Niamh Cahill, David F. Hill, et al., “Relative Sea-Level Change in Northeastern Florida (USA) During the Last ∼8.0 Ka,” Quaternary Science Reviews 142 (June 2016): 90–101, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.04.016; Miriam C. Jones, G. Lynn Wingard, Bethany Stackhouse, Katherine Keller, Debra Willard, Marci Marot, Bryan Landacre, et al., “Rapid Inundation of Southern Florida Coastline Despite Low Relative Sea-Level Rise Rates During the Late-Holocene,” Nature Communications 10, no. 1 (July 19, 2019): 3231, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11138-4.

A few years previously, Andrea Dutton and some of her colleagues: Arnoldo Valle-Levinson, Andrea Dutton, and Jonathan B. Martin, “Spatial and Temporal Variability of Sea Level Rise Hot Spots over the Eastern United States,” Geophysical Research Letters 44, no. 15 (2017): 7876–82, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073926; Arnoldo Valle-Levinson and Andrea Dutton, “An X-Factor in Coastal Flooding: Natural Climate Patterns Create Hot Spots of Rapid Sea Level Rise,” The Conversation, January 1, 2018, http://theconversation.com/an-x-factor-in-coastal-flooding-natural-climate-patterns-create-hot-spots-of-rapid-sea-level-rise-82628; Justin Gillis, “The Sea Level Did, in Fact, Rise Faster in the Southeast U.S.,” New York Times, August 9, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/climate/the-sea-level-did-in-fact-rise-faster-in-the-southeast-us.html.

Some spots along that trail are already at risk: Debra Holtz, Adam Markham, Kate Cell, and Brenda Ekwurzel, National Landmarks at Risk: How Rising Seas, Floods, and Wildfires Are Threatening the United States’ Most Cherished Historic Sites (Union of Concerned Scientists: May 2014), 7–9.

“We have always been a pluralist nation”: Kathryn Schulz, “Citizen Khan,” New Yorker, May 30, 2016, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/06/zarif-khans-tamales-and-the-muslims-of-sheridan-wyoming.

A few years ago, beneath the central plaza: Marcia Lane, “Plaza Gives Up Its Secrets,” St. Augustine Record, June 20, 2010, https://www.staugustine.com/article/20100620/NEWS/306209935.

Spain treated slavery as an “unnatural condition”: Jane Landers, “Transforming Bondsmen into Vassals: Arming Slaves in Colonial Spanish America,” in Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age, ed. Christopher Leslie Brown and Philip D. Morgan (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 120–45, https://doi.org/10.12987/yale/9780300109009.003.0006.

When Pedro Menéndez and his crew: Jane Landers, “Spanish Sanctuary: Fugitives in Florida, 1687–1790,” Florida Historical Quarterly 62, no. 3 (1984): 296–313; “African Americans in St. Augustine 1565–1821,” Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, U.S. National Park Service, accessed September 23, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/african-americans-in-st-augustine-1565-1821.htm.

Fort Mose might never have existed: Jane Landers, “Filling in the Missing Pieces: The Extraordinary Life of Captain Francisco Menendez, Leader of the Free Black Town of Gracia Real de Santa Theresa de Mose” (paper presented at the Florida Conference of Historians for the Florida Lecture Series at Florida Southern College, February 14, 2015).

which was established in 1866: “Florida, St. Augustine, Lincolnville Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places, U.S. National Park Service, accessed October 21, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/geo-flor/28.htm.

In the nineteenth century, a civil engineer hired by Standard Oil founder Henry Flagler: “From Creek to Lake: The Maria Sanchez,” Governor’s House Library, June 16, 2021, https://governorshouselibrary.wordpress.com/2021/06/16/from-creek-to-lake-the-maria-sanchez/.

But it wasn’t fully excavated until the mid-1980s: Kathleen A. Deagan and Jane Landers, “Fort Mosé: Earliest Free African-American Town in the United States,” in “I, Too, Am America”: Archaeological Studies of African-American Life, ed. Theresa A. Singleton (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999); “Fort Mose,” St. Johns County Government, accessed May 17, 2021, http://www.co.st-johns.fl.us/LAMP/Projects/FLct_mose.aspx.

This hurricane dampened: Sheldon Gardner, “Dorian Grazes City,” St. Augustine Record, September 4, 2019, https://www.staugustine.com/news/20190904/hurricane-dorian-grazes-city-brings-some-minor-flooding; Lena Pringle, Ashley Harding, Jennifer Ready, Vic Micolucci, and Francine Frazier, “St. Johns County Mostly Unscathed by Hurricane Dorian,” WJXT, September 6, 2019, https://www.news4jax.com/news/2019/09/06/st-johns-county-mostly-unscathed-by-hurricane-dorian/.

Still, the city government: Aaron London, “Moving History: Florida Ag Museum Hauls 1940s-Era Cottage to Flagler County,” Daytona Beach News-Journal, November 12, 2019.

Miami Beach—with six times the population of St. Augustine: Greg Allen, “As Waters Rise, Miami Beach Builds Higher Streets and Political Willpower,” NPR, May 10, 2016, https://www.npr.org/2016/05/10/476071206/as-waters-rise-miami-beach-builds-higher-streets-and-political-willpower; Mario Ariza and Alex Harris, “Miles of Florida Roads Face ‘Major Problem’ from Sea Rise. Is State Moving Fast Enough?” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, March 19, 2021, https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/environment/fl-ne-sea-level-rise-threatens-florida-roads-20210319-lcheqk6p4rcb5ivprpzfqg3wfq-story.html.

A previous St. Augustine mayor had traveled to the Netherlands: Jessica Clark, “St. Augustine Mayor Travels to the Netherlands to Learn About Sea Level Rise Solutions,” First Coast News, June 11, 2018, https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/local/st-augustine/st-augustine-mayor-travels-to-the-netherlands-to-learn-about-sea-level-rise-solutions/77-563346222; Sheldon Gardner, “City Taps Dutch Researchers on Flooding,” St. Augustine Record, August 31, 2018, https://www.staugustine.com/news/20180831/st-augustine-officials-in-talks-with-dutch-researchers-on-sea-level-rise-solutions.

But she had to resign: Sheldon Gardner, “St. Augustine Mayor Steps Down After Stroke,” Florida Times-Union, February 28, 2019, https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190228/st-augustine-mayor-steps-down-after-stroke.

In September 2020, a nor’easter arrived: Sheldon Gardner, “City Sees Worst Nor’easter in Decades,” September 21, 2020, https://www.staugustine.com/story/news/2020/09/21/noreaster-causes-flooding-st-augustine/5855398002/.

The mayor who visited: Ryan Benk, “St. Augustine Mayor: You Can Address Sea Level Rise Without Talking Climate Change,” WJCT News, June 29, 2017, https://news.wjct.org/first-coast/2017-06-29/st-augustine-mayor-you-can-address-sea-level-rise-without-talking-climate-change.

In early 2021: Mary Ellen Klas, “Florida Lawmakers Advance Bills to Halt Local Clean Energy Efforts,” Tampa Bay Times, March 9, 2021, https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/03/09/florida-lawmakers-advance-bills-to-halt-local-clean-energy-efforts/; Emily Pontecorvo and Brendan Rivers, “A Florida City Wanted to Move Away from Fossil Fuels. The State Just Made Sure It Couldn’t,” Grist, July 29, 2021, https://grist.org/cities/tampa-wanted-renewable-energy-resolution-florida-lawmakers-made-sure-it-couldnt-gas-ban-preemption/.

10: A Safe Space

The first of these studies, published in 2008: James Hansen, Makiko Sato, Pushker Kharecha, David Beerling, Robert Berner, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Mark Pagani, et al., “Target Atmospheric CO₂: Where Should Humanity Aim?” Open Atmospheric Science Journal 2, no. 1 (October 31, 2008): 217–31, https://doi.org/10.2174/1874282300802010217.

The second, in 2009—with the evocative title “A Safe Operating Space for Humanity”: Johan Rockström, Will Steffen, Kevin Noone, Åsa Persson, F. Stuart Chapin III, Eric F. Lambin, Timothy M. Lenton, et al., “A Safe Operating Space for Humanity,” Nature 461, no. 7263 (September 2009): 472–75, https://doi.org/10.1038/461472a.

The original definition of threshold: threshold, n.1.a., OED Online.

There are those, such as Elon Musk: Nick Statt, “Elon Musk Still Thinks a Mars Colony Will Save Us from a Future Dark Age,” Verge, March 11, 2018, https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/11/17106910/elon-musk-ai-threat-mars-moon-colonization-nukes-sxsw-2018; Bill McKibben, epilogue to Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (New York: Henry Holt, 2019).

In 1833, the British economist and professor William Forster Lloyd: W. F. Lloyd, Two Lectures on the Checks to Population, Delivered Before the University of Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 1832 (S. Collingewood, 1833), accessed on Google Books.

echoed the influential (though also controversial) scholar Thomas Malthus: Morgan Rose, “In Defense of Malthus,” Econlib, September 16, 2002, https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/Teachers/defendmalthus.html.

In 1968, writing in the journal Science, Hardin penned: Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Science 162, no. 3859 (December 13, 1968): 1243–48.

Hardin’s ideas about human scarcity and the commons: Matto Mildenberger, “The Tragedy of the Tragedy of the Commons,” Scientific American, April 23, 2019, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/the-tragedy-of-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/; Matto Mildenberger, “Trump and the Tragedy of the Commons,” Commons Network, July 9, 2019, https://www.commonsnetwork.org/news/trump-and-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/; Cathy Gere, “The Drama of the Commons,” Point, June 12, 2020, https://thepointmag.com/politics/the-drama-of-the-commons/.

Elsewhere in his writing, he wasn’t so subtle: “Garrett Hardin,” Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed October 25, 2021, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/garrett-hardin.

A 1985 essay in American Zoologist on environmental education suggested: John A. Moore, “Science as a Way of Knowing—Human Ecology,” American Zoologist 25, no. 2 (May 1985): 483–637, https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/25.2.483.

a political scientist named Elinor Scott (better known as Elinor Ostrom): Vlad Tarko, Elinor Ostrom: An Intellectual Biography (London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016); Emily Langer, “Elinor Ostrom, First Woman to Receive Nobel Prize in Economics, Dies at 78,” Washington Post, June 13, 2012, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/elinor-ostrom-first-woman-to-receive-nobel-prize-in-economics-dies-at-78/2012/06/13/gJQAMO2vaV_story.html; Gere, “Drama of the Commons.”

Vincent was an expert in Western resources: Actual World, Possible Future (WTIU Documentaries, 2020), 1:26:51, https://www.pbs.org/video/actual-world-possible-future-09rkab/.

the Central and West Coast Groundwater Basins of Los Angeles: “Coastal Plain of Los Angeles County Groundwater Basin, West Coast Subbasin,” California’s Groundwater Bulletin 118, updated February 27, 2004, https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Programs/Groundwater-Management/Bulletin-118/Files/2003-Basin-Descriptions/4_011_03_WestCoastSubbasin.pdf; Ted Johnson, “An Introduction to the Hydrogeology of the Central and West Coast Basins,” Water Replenishment District of Southern California, Technical Bulletin no. 1, Fall 2004.

Elinor wanted to understand: Elinor Ostrom, chap. 4 in Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015); Elinor Ostrom, “Public Entrepreneurships: A Case Study in Ground Water Basin Management” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1964).

Essayist and former city official D. J. Waldie writes: D. J. Waldie, “Beneath Our Feet: Water and Politics in Southeast L.A.,” KCET, September 2, 2016, https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/beneath-our-feet-water-and-politics-in-southeast-l-a.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is now considering: Sammy Roth, “Climate Change Spells Trouble for the Colorado River. But There’s Still Hope,” Los Angeles Times, December 31, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2020-12-31/boiling-point-colorado-river-in-trouble-still-hope-boiling-point; Jeremy P. Jacobs, “Could LA Water Recycling Be a Miracle for Parched West?” E&E News, September 27, 2021, https://www.eenews.net/articles/could-la-water-recycling-be-a-miracle-for-parched-west/; Carl Smith, “California Invests in Recycled Water as Droughts Take a Toll,” Governing, August 4, 2021, https://www.governing.com/next/california-invests-in-recycled-water-as-droughts-take-a-toll.

“No one ‘owns’ the basins themselves”: Ostrom, chap. 4 in Governing the Commons.

In 1973, five years after the publication: Tarko, Elinor Ostrom.

Business and finance journalist: John Cassidy, “The Nobel That Should Have Been,” New Yorker, October 13, 2009, https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-nobel-that-should-have-been.

Communal resources also have: Ostrom, chap. 2 in Governing the Commons; “Elinor Ostrom Prize Lecture,” video, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2009, 28:05, December 8, 2009, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2009/ostrom/lecture/.

But Elinor herself took issue: Fran Korten, “Elinor Ostrom Wins Nobel for Common(s) Sense,” YES! magazine, February 27, 2010, https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/america-remix/2010/02/27/elinor-ostrom-wins-nobel-for-common-s-sense.

Such irrigation systems exist: Robert Neuwirth, “Centuries-Old Irrigation System Shows How to Manage Scarce Water,” National Geographic, May 17, 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/acequias.

Naomi Klein writes in On Fire: Naomi Klein, “Capitalism vs. the Climate,” in On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2020).

just ninety companies have borne: Richard Heede, “Tracing Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide and Methane Emissions to Fossil Fuel and Cement Producers, 1854–2010,” Climatic Change 122, no. 1 (January 1, 2014): 229–41, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0986-y.

Since at least the late 1970s: “Exxon: The Road Not Taken,” Inside Climate News, nine-part series of stories, accessed October 25, 2021, https://insideclimatenews.org/project/exxon-the-road-not-taken/; Neela Banerjee, “Exxon’s Oil Industry Peers Knew About Climate Dangers in the 1970s, Too,” Inside Climate News, December 22, 2015, https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22122015/exxon-mobil-oil-industry-peers-knew-about-climate-change-dangers-1970s-american-petroleum-institute-api-shell-chevron-texaco/.

In 2015, the Los Angeles Times and Inside Climate News published: Neela Banerjee, Lisa Song, and David Hasemyer, “Exxon Believed Deep Dive into Climate Research Would Protect Its Business,” Inside Climate News, September 17, 2015, https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17092015/exxon-believed-deep-dive-into-climate-research-would-protect-its-business/; Sara Jerving, Katie Jennings, Masako Melissa Hirsch, and Susanne Rust, “What Exxon Knew About the Earth’s Melting Arctic,” Los Angeles Times, October 9, 2015, https://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-arctic/.

In social science, the technical term for a mooch or a thief: Natalie M. Roy, “Climate Change’s Free Rider Problem: Why We Must Relinquish Freedom to Become Free,” William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review 45, no. 3 (2021), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmelpr/vol45/iss3/7.

In the same month that she won the Nobel, Elinor Ostrom: Elinor Ostrom, “A Polycentric Approach for Coping with Climate Change,” Policy Research Working Paper 5095, Background Paper to the 2010 World Development Report, The World Bank, October 2009.

In February 2012, four months before: Elinor Ostrom, “Nested Externalities and Polycentric Institutions: Must We Wait for Global Solutions to Climate Change Before Taking Actions at Other Scales?” Economic Theory 49, no. 2 (February 2012): 353–69, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-010-0558-6.

In 2008, a group of young activists: Bill McKibben, Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist (New York: Henry Holt, 2013).

It has also drawn strength and power: Rebecca Hersher, “Key Moments in the Dakota Access Pipeline Fight,” NPR, February 22, 2017, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/22/514988040/key-moments-in-the-dakota-access-pipeline-fight.

In 2020, legal actions: Lisa Friedman, “Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Wins a Victory in Dakota Access Pipeline Case,” New York Times, March 25, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/climate/dakota-access-pipeline-sioux.html.

In the summer of 2020, the Sunrise Movement: “If You Care About the Green New Deal, We Need You to Join the Movement for Black Lives,” Sunrise Movement, June 20, 2020, https://www.sunrisemovement.org/theory-of-change/if-you-care-about-the-green-new-deal-we-need-you-to-join-the-movement-for-black-lives-7d4395918408/.

In September 2019, millions of people joined: Oliver Milman, “US to Stage Its Largest Ever Climate Strike: ‘Somebody Must Sound the Alarm,’” Guardian, September 20, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/20/climate-strikes-us-students-greta-thunberg; Eliza Barclay and Brian Resnick, “How Big Was the Global Climate Strike? 4 Million People, Activists Estimate,” Vox, September 20, 2019, https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/9/20/20876143/climate-strike-2019-september-20-crowd-estimate.

More than a decade after 350 became: Bill McKibben, “350—the Most Important Number on the Planet. We Just Need to Get the Politicians to Listen to the Scientists,” Guardian, October 23, 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2009/oct/23/350-rally.

11: To Move Home

out of house and home (idiom): Out of house and home, The Free Dictionary, accessed October 25, 2021, https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/out+of+house+and+home.

They hired the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium: Denali Commission, “ANTHC Chosen as Project Manager for Newtok Village Move,” Delta Discovery, June 20, 2018, https://deltadiscovery.com/anthc-chosen-as-project-manager-for-newtok-village-move/.

Just in Alaska, dozens of other remote rural communities: University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Northern Engineering, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Statewide Threat Assessment: Identification of Threats from Erosion, Flooding, and Thawing Permafrost in Remote Alaska Communities, report prepared for the Denali Commission, November 2019, https://www.denali.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Statewide-Threat-Assessment-Final-Report-20-November-2019.pdf.

Over the last three decades, in more than a thousand counties: Katharine J. Mach, Caroline M. Kraan, Miyuki Hino, A. R. Siders, Erica M. Johnston, and Christopher B. Field, “Managed Retreat Through Voluntary Buyouts of Flood-Prone Properties,” Science Advances 5, no. 10 (October 2019): eaax8995, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax8995.

But according to an analysis published by the National Institute of Building Sciences: Keith Porter, Nicole Dash, Charles Huyck, Joost Santos, Charles Scawthorn, Michael Eguchi, Ron Eguchi, et al., Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves: 2019 Report, National Institute of Building Sciences, Multihazard Mitigation Council, December 2019, https://www.nibs.org/reports/natural-hazard-mitigation-saves-2019-report.

In Louisiana, an Indigenous community on a rapidly shrinking island: “The Story of Isle de Jean Charles,” Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement, accessed October 25, 2021, https://isledejeancharles.la.gov/.

On the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, the Quileute Tribe: Morgan Keith, “The ‘Twilight’ Saga Used Its People and Traditions. Now, the Quileute Tribe Is Relocating in an Effort to Preserve Them,” Insider, July 24, 2021, https://www.insider.com/the-quileute-tribe-is-relocating-2021-7.

Between 2008 and 2012, then president of the Maldives: Ben Doherty, “Climate Change Castaways Consider Move to Australia,” Sydney Morning Herald, January 7, 2012, https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-change-castaways-consider-move-to-australia-20120106-1pobf.html; Randeep Ramesh, “Paradise Almost Lost: Maldives Seek to Buy a New Homeland,” Guardian, November 9, 2008, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/nov/10/maldives-climate-change.

But Nasheed was ousted: “Maldives Ex-President Mohamed Nasheed Arrested,” Guardian, October 8, 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/08/maldives-mohamed-nasheed-arrested; Krishan Francis and Aniruddha Ghosal, “Maldives Minister: Failure to Limit Warming a Death Sentence,” AP News, October 20, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-business-sri-lanka-europe-2da12921977d7ef067dfec43028528ed.

According to some estimates, the diaspora that permanently departed: Maria Godoy, “Tracking the Katrina Diaspora: A Tricky Task,” NPR, August 2006, https://legacy.npr.org/news/specials/katrina/oneyearlater/diaspora/index.html; “Hurricane Katrina Migration: Where Did People Go? Where Are They Coming from Now?” Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), August 27, 2015, updated July 18, 2019, https://www.nola.com/news/article_b84a9b86-e0dc-511a-872d-09fef0012508.html.

In 2020, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre: “2020 Internal Displacement,” Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, accessed October 25, 2021, https://www.internal-displacement.org/database/displacement-data.

but the organization predicts: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Global Report on Internal Displacement 2021: Internal Displacement in a Changing Climate, https://www.internal-displacement.org/global-report/grid2021/.

“There are no reliable estimates”: “A Complex Nexus,” International Organization for Migration, accessed October 25, 2021, https://www.iom.int/complex-nexus.

Already, a portion of the vast population of migrants: Abrahm Lustgarten, “The Great Climate Migration,” New York Times Magazine, July 23, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html.

two men died on the Kuskokwim River: Krysti Shallenberger, “Melting Ice Is Disrupting Daily Life in the Y-K Delta in the Worst Possible Way,” Alaska Public Media, April 12, 2019, https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/04/12/melting-ice-is-disrupting-daily-life-in-the-y-k-delta-in-the-worst-possible-way/; Matthew Cappucci and Andrew Freedman, “More Freak Weather Comes to Alaska, Which Has Had an Unprecedented Summer,” Washington Post, August 16, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/08/16/more-freak-weather-comes-alaska-which-has-had-an-unprecedented-summer/.

But that July: Krysti Shallenberger, “Alaska Heat Wave Hits Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta,” Alaska Public Media, July 10, 2019, https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/07/10/alaska-heat-wave-hits-yukon-kuskokwim-delta/.

The warming of the Arctic and the resulting wrinkles: “Scientists See Link Between Arctic Warming and Texas Cold Snap,” Yale Environment 360, September 3, 2021, https://e360.yale.edu/digest/scientists-see-link-between-climate-change-and-the-texas-cold-snap; Judah Cohen, Laurie Agel, Mathew Barlow, Chaim I. Garfinkel, and Ian White, “Linking Arctic Variability and Change with Extreme Winter Weather in the United States,” Science 373, no. 6559 (September 3, 2021): 1116–21, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi9167.

First, the military returned: Greg Kim, “Newtok Partners with Military to Escape Coastal Erosion,” KYUK, August 7, 2019, https://www.kyuk.org/post/newtok-partners-military-escape-coastal-erosion.

“We can’t have very many mistakes”: “The Newtok to Mertarvik Innovative Readiness Training Documentary,” Facebook video, 11:33, posted by Innovative Readiness Training, August 2, 2019, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=457260611791011.

Linguists at the Alaska Native Language Center: Lawrence Kaplan, “Inuit or Eskimo: Which Name to Use?” Alaska Native Language Center, accessed October 25, 2021, https://www.uaf.edu/anlc/resources/inuit_or_eskimo.php.

“This is an emergency. Our house is on fire”: “‘Our House Is on Fire’: Greta Thunberg Addresses Hundreds of Thousands at NYC Climate Strike,” Democracy Now!, September 23, 2019, https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/23/new_york_city_climate_strike_greta.

Communities in rural Alaska have not forgotten: Kyle Hopkins, “An Alaska Hospital Executive Downplayed the COVID-19 Threat in an Email to Staff. She’s No Longer on the Job,” Anchorage Daily News, March 31, 2020, updated April 1, 2020, https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/rural-alaska/2020/04/01/an-alaska-hospital-executive-downplayed-the-covid-19-threat-in-an-email-to-staff-shes-no-longer-on-the-job/.

Then, in the still-eroding village site: Greg Kim, “Newtok Regains Power After Month-Long Outage,” KYUK, September 22, 2020, https://www.kyuk.org/post/newtok-regains-power-after-month-long-outage.

Sadly, Newtok was not able to keep the pandemic out forever: Greg Kim, “How COVID-19 Is Slowing Down the Relocation of a Southwest Alaska Village,” Alaska Public Media, September 8, 2021, https://www.alaskapublic.org/2021/09/08/how-covid-19-is-slowing-down-the-relocation-of-a-southwest-alaska-village/.

12: To Clean House

bring something home to (idiom): under entry for home, Webster’s New World Dictionary.

On Twitter, someone launched: Ch3vron PR (@ch3vronPR), “In PR school, we had nightmares about refineries blowing up in our cities so we built them all in yours. #ChevronFire #ThoughtsDuringSchool,” Twitter, August 7, 2012, 12:11P.M., https://twitter.com/ch3vronPR/status/232871665917374464.

When the evening arrived, the Urban Tilthers gathered: Jennifer Baires, “At Town Hall Meeting, Questions and Anger over Chevron Refinery Fire,” Richmond Confidential, August 8, 2012, https://richmondconfidential.org/2012/08/08/at-town-hall-meeting-questions-and-anger-over-chevron-refinery-fire/.

Doria also spoke to the media: KQED News Staff, “Chevron Refinery Fire,” KQED, August 6, 2012, https://www.kqed.org/news/72350/chevron-refinery-fire-shelter-in-place-for-richmond-north-richmond-and-san-pablo-residents.

This foundation: “eQuip Richmond,” RCF Connects, accessed September 19, 2021, https://www.rcfconnects.org/community-initiatives/community-growth/equip-richmond/.

Meanwhile, the regional air quality district: Bay Area Air Quality Management District, “Air District Statement on Chevron Fire Air Quality Samples,” news release, August 7, 2012.

Three days later, that agency backpedaled: Laird Harrison, “Air Quality Agency Detected Contaminant After Chevron Richmond Refinery Fire,” August 10, 2012, https://www.kqed.org/news/72878/richmond-air-quality-officials-say-pollution-detected-from-refinery-fire.

Much later, an independent academic analysis: Linda L. Remy, Ted Clay, Vera Byers, and Paul E. Rosenfeld, “Hospital, Health, and Community Burden After Oil Refinery Fires, Richmond, California 2007 and 2012,” Environmental Health 18, no. 1 (May 16, 2019): 48, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-019-0484-4.

A year after the accident, Chevron: Mark Andrew Boyer, “Chevron Installs New Air Monitor in North Richmond,” Richmond Confidential, September 28, 2013, https://richmondconfidential.org/2013/09/27/chevron-installs-new-air-monitor-in-north-richmond/.

“At first the shipyards”: Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (New York: Liveright, 2017).

According to various estimates: Eli Moore, The Othering and Belonging Institute, email message, December 3, 2021; Eli Moore and Swati Prakash, “Richmond’s Tax Revenue from Chevron,” Pacific Institute, October 2008; “Richmond Facing Chevron Decision,” East Bay Times, March 2, 2008, https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2008/03/02/richmond-facing-chevron-decision/.

However, the company has disputed: David R. Baker, “Chevron, Richmond End Dispute over Taxes,” SFGATE, May 13, 2010, https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Chevron-Richmond-end-dispute-over-taxes-3188996.php; Conor Dougherty, “California’s 40-Year-Old Tax Revolt Survives a Counterattack,” New York Times, November 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/business/economy/california-prop-15-property-tax.html.

In the summer of 2012: Isabella Fertel, “‘The World Needs More Najaris,’” Richmond Confidential, September 28, 2020, https://richmondconfidential.org/2020/09/28/the-world-needs-more-najaris/.

That year, the city government had also adopted: City of Richmond, “Community Health and Wellness,” Richmond General Plan 2030, April 25, 2012.

Harvard University historians Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes: Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes, “Rhetoric and Frame Analysis of ExxonMobil’s Climate Change Communications,” One Earth 4, no. 5 (May 21, 2021): 696–719, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.014; Naomi Oreskes, “Testimony Before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: Examining the Oil Industry’s Efforts to Suppress the Truth About Climate Change,” October 23, 2019, https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO02/20191023/110126/HHRG-116-GO02-Wstate-OreskesN-20191023.pdf.

In response, even long-established: Lauren Feeney, “Why the Sierra Club Broke Tradition to Protest the Keystone Pipeline,” BillMoyers.com, February 14, 2013, https://billmoyers.com/2013/02/14/sierra-club-lifts-120-year-ban-on-civil-disobedience-to-protest-keystone-xl-pipeline/; Sierra Club National, “Sierra Club, Allies Engage in Historic Act Civil Disobedience to Stop Keystone XL,” news release, February 13, 2013, https://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2013/02/sierra-club-allies-engage-historic-act-civil-disobedience-stop-keystone-xl; Loren Blackford, “Civilly Disobedient; Morally Imperative,” Sierra Club, September 17, 2018, https://www.sierraclub.org/change/2018/09/civilly-disobedient-morally-imperative.

Climate activists became willing: Jamie Henn, “Here’s How We Defeated the Keystone XL Pipeline,” Sierra, January 30, 2021, https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/here-s-how-we-defeated-keystone-xl-pipeline.

Analysts even warned that activists: Katrina Rabeler, “Gas Industry Report Calls Anti-Fracking Movement a ‘Highly Effective Campaign,’” YES! magazine, March 27, 2013, https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2013/03/27/gas-industry-report-calls-anti-fracking-movement-highly-effective; Control Risks, The Global Anti-Fracking Movement: What It Wants, How It Operates and What’s Next, http://epl.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/what_is_antishale_movement.pdf.

In August 2013, three days before the one-year anniversary of the fire: Susie Cagle, “A Year After a Refinery Explosion, Richmond, Calif., Is Fighting Back,” Grist, August 6, 2013, https://grist.org/climate-energy/a-year-after-a-refinery-explosion-richmond-cali-is-fighting-back/.

She held a bright blue microphone: Some quotes and details in this section first appeared in this news report: “Chevron to Pay $2 Million for 2012 Refinery Fire in Richmond, CA; 200 Arrested at Protest,” Democracy Now!, video, 44:04, August 6, 2013, accessed October 26, 2021, http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/6/chevron_to_pay_2_million_for.

she told the crowd, The community doesn’t deserve: Fareed Abdulrahman, “Thousands March to Chevron Days Before Fire Anniversary,” Richmond Confidential, August 3, 2013, https://richmondconfidential.org/2013/08/03/protestors-march-to-chevron-days-before-fire-anniversary/.

Idle No More activists led them: “Idle No More Solidarity SF Bay Led the March of over 2,500 People to Chevron in Richmond, California,” Idle No More, accessed September 19, 2021, https://idlenomore.ca/idle-no-more-solidarity-sf-bay-led-the-march-of-over-2500-people-to-chevron-in-richmond-california-idle-no-more/.

In the end, the police arrested more than two hundred people: Jill Tucker and Victoria Colliver, “210 Arrested at Chevron Refinery Protest,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 3, 2013, updated August 4, 2013, https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/210-arrested-at-Chevron-refinery-protest-4705509.php.

Amazonian communities had sued over contamination left behind: Sharon Lerner, “How the Environmental Lawyer Who Won a Massive Judgment Against Chevron Lost Everything,” Intercept, January 29, 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/01/29/chevron-ecuador-lawsuit-steven-donziger/.

The company had also filled hundreds: Patrick Radden Keefe, “Reversal of Fortune,” New Yorker, January 1, 2012, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/09/reversal-of-fortune-patrick-radden-keefe; David Feige, “Pursuing the Polluters,” Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2008, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-apr-20-op-feige20-story.html.

According to one report commissioned by a human rights group: James Brooke, “Pollution of Water Tied to Oil in Ecuador,” New York Times, March 22, 1994, https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/22/science/pollution-of-water-tied-to-oil-in-ecuador.html.

In 2014, a U.S. judge declared: Steven Mufson, “U.S. Judge Rules for Chevron in Ecuador Pollution Case,” Washington Post, March 4, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/2014/03/04/ec828d00-a3bb-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html; James North, “Is Chevron’s Vendetta Against Steven Donziger Finally Backfiring?” Nation, October 4, 2021, https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/steven-donziger-chevron-sentencing/; Human Rights Council, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, “Opinions Adopted by the Working Group at Its Ninety-First Session, 6–10 September, 2021,” October 1, 2021, https://www.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/Documents/Issues/Detention/Opinions/Session91/A_HRC_WGAD_2021_24_AdvanceEditedVersion.pdf&action=default&DefaultItemOpen=1; “29 Nobel Laureates Demand That Chevron Face Justice for Amazon Pollution and Call for Freedom for Human Rights Defender Steven Donziger,” https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ac2615b8f5130fda4340fcb/t/5e9890f6d641a53d544792d6/1587056892216/2020–04-nobel-laureates-statement.pdf; Isabella Grullón Paz, “Lawyer Who Won $9.5 Billion Judgment Against Chevron Reports to Prison,” New York Times, October 27, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/27/business/energy-environment/steven-donziger-chevron.html.

He would become an even more controversial figure: John Otis, “Correa’s Legacy Leaves a Long Road to Recovery for Ecuador’s Journalists,” Committee to Protect Journalists, November 2, 2017, https://cpj.org/2017/11/correas-legacy-leaves-a-long-road-to-recovery-for/.

But McLaughlin’s intent was clearer: Gayle McLaughlin, Winning Richmond: How a Progressive Alliance Won City Hall (Brooklyn, NY: Hard Ball Press, 2018).

Over a week, they went to Quito: John Geluardi, “From Richmond to the Rainforest,” East Bay Express, October 16, 2013, https://eastbayexpress.com/from-richmond-to-the-rainforest-1/.

Doria kept a blog: Doria Robinson, “The Dirty Hand of Chevron-Texaco,” Richmond, Ecuador (blog), September 18, 2013, https://richmondecuador.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/the-dirty-hand-of-chevron-texaco/.

Chevron later funded a billboard advertisement: Steve Early, Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City (Boston: Beacon Press, 2017).

There was also an underlying socioeconomic clash: Eli Moore, Samir Gambhir, and Phuong Tseng, Belonging and Community Health in Richmond: An Analysis of Changing Demographics and Housing, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, University of California, Berkeley, February 20, 2015, https://belonging.berkeley.edu/belonging-and-community-health-richmond.

The phrase identity politics originated in the 1970s: Mychal Denzel Smith, “What Liberals Get Wrong About Identity Politics,” New Republic, September 11, 2017, https://newrepublic.com/article/144739/liberals-get-wrong-identity-politics; “Combahee River Collective Statement,” Combahee River Collective, April 1977, accessed September 20, 2021, http://combaheerivercollective.weebly.com/the-combahee-river-collective-statement.html; Alicia Garza, “Identity Politics: Friend or Foe?” Othering and Belonging Institute, September 24, 2019, https://belonging.berkeley.edu/identity-politics-friend-or-foe.

In the fossil fuel politics of Richmond, some residents: Norimitsu Onishi, “Together a Century, City and Oil Giant Hit a Rough Patch,” New York Times, January 2, 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/us/chevron-hits-rough-patch-in-richmond-calif.html.

In 2008, a previous city council, more sympathetic: David Helvarg, “Opinion: Chevron Wants to Buy My Vote,” Los Angeles Times, October 8, 2014, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-chevron-richmond-campaign-spending-20141007-story.html.

A judge halted: Earthjustice, “Chevron Refinery Expansion at Richmond, CA Halted,” news release, July 2, 2009, https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2009/chevron-refinery-expansion-at-richmond-ca-halted.

Kamala Harris, then serving as the attorney general of California, wrote: Amy Standen, “Chevron Refinery Plans in Richmond Pose Risks, Says Attorney General,” June 9, 2014, https://www.kqed.org/science/18206/chevron-refinery-plans-in-richmond-pose-risks-says-attorney-general.

The company started its own news site: John Upton, “Chevron Creates Its Own News Outlet for a Poor City That It Pollutes,” Grist, March 24, 2014, https://grist.org/climate-energy/chevron-creates-its-own-news-outlet-for-a-poor-city-that-it-pollutes/; Early, Refinery Town.

its consultants helped launch: Jimmy Tobias, “Stealth Chevron Consultants Administer Richmond News Website,” Richmond Confidential, October 30, 2014, https://richmondconfidential.org/2014/10/30/stealth-chevron-consultants-administer-richmond-news-website/.

the company also spent about $3 million on political campaigning: Brett Murphy and Elly Schmidt-Hopper, “Accusations and Money Fly as Chevron Spends on Richmond City Council Race,” KQED, October 20, 2014, https://www.kqed.org/news/10344454/accusations-and-money-fly-as-chevron-spends-on-richmond-city-council-race.

The Civic Center is Richmond’s city hall: John King, “Richmond Civic Center—Where Past Meets Future,” SFGATE, May 26, 2009, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Richmond-Civic-Center-where-past-meets-future-3231718.php.

On one curved wall of this building: “The Extraordinary Ordinary People of Richmond,” Judy Baca, accessed September 20, 2021, http://www.judybaca.com/artist/art/extraordinaryordinarypeopleofrichmondca/.

He had also recently fulminated against: Sara Lafleur Vetter, “The Battle for Bikes in Richmond,” Richmond Confidential, December 3, 2013, https://richmondconfidential.org/2013/12/03/the-battle-for-bikes-in-richmond/.

But Nat Bates and Doria Robinson: Betty Marquez Rosales, “Nat Bates, City Council,” Richmond Confidential, January 31, 2018, https://richmondconfidential.org/2018/01/31/nat-bates-city-council/.

Critics of Bates have raised questions: Harriet Rowan, “Independence of Independent Expenditure Groups Called into Question,” Richmond Confidential, December 20, 2014, https://richmondconfidential.org/2014/12/20/independence-of-independent-expenditure-groups-called-into-question/.

In July 2014, the Richmond city council voted to approve: Molly Samuel, “Richmond Approves Contentious Chevron Project,” KQED, July 30, 2014, https://www.kqed.org/science/20001/richmond-approves-contentious-chevron-project.

Doria’s mother attended: Malcolm Marshall, “Richmond Approves Stalled Modernization Plan at Chevron Refinery,” Richmond Pulse, July 31, 2014, https://richmondpulse.org/2014/07/31/richmond-approves-stalled-modernization-plan-at-chevron-refinery-2/.

David Horsey, a cartoonist and editorial writer: David Horsey, “Chevron Funds Brazen Campaign to Buy a City Government,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2014, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-chevron-brazen-campaign-20141029-story.html.

Senator Bernie Sanders stopped in Richmond: Bonnie Chan, Loi Almeron, Semany Gashaw, Martin Totland, and Phil James, “The Best of Senator Bernie Sanders in Richmond,” Richmond Confidential, October 19, 2014, https://richmondconfidential.org/2014/10/19/the-best-of-senator-bernie-sanders-in-richmond/.

In November, every candidate: Richard Gonzales, “Chevron Spends Big, and Loses Big, in a City Council Race,” Two-Way (blog), NPR, November 5, 2014, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/11/05/361875792/chevron-spends-big-and-loses-big-in-a-city-council-race.

Soil can also be forgiving: Borislava Lukić, Antonio Panico, David Huguenot, Massimiliano Fabbricino, Eric D. van Hullebusch, and Giovanni Esposito, “A Review on the Efficiency of Landfarming Integrated with Composting as a Soil Remediation Treatment,” Environmental Technology Reviews 6, no. 1 (2017): 94–116, https://doi.org/10.1080/21622515.2017.1310310; Zhenyu Wang, Ying Xu, Jian Zhao, Fengmin Li, Dongmei Gao, and Baoshan Xing, “Remediation of Petroleum Contaminated Soils Through Composting and Rhizosphere Degradation,” Journal of Hazardous Materials 190, no. 1–3 (June 15, 2011): 677–85, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2011.03.103; Kawina Robichaud, Catherine Girard, Dimitri Dagher, Katherine Stewart, Michel Labrecque, Mohamed Hijri, and Marc Amyot, “Local Fungi, Willow and Municipal Compost Effectively Remediate Petroleum-Contaminated Soil in the Canadian North,” Chemosphere 220 (April 1, 2019): 47–55, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.12.108.

More than a decade earlier, for instance: A. A. Meharg, J. Wright, H. Dyke, and D. Osborn, “Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) Dispersion and Deposition to Vegetation and Soil Following a Large Scale Chemical Fire,” Environmental Pollution 99, no. 1 (January 1, 1998): 29–36, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0269-7491(97)00180-2.

To the north lies a community outside city limits: Robert Rogers, “Part 2: North Richmond’s Inauspicious Beginnings,” Richmond Confidential, June 8, 2011, https://richmondconfidential.org/2011/06/08/part-2-north-richmonds-inauspicious-beginnings/; Robert Rogers, “Part 6: North Richmond’s Unceasing Struggle,” Richmond Confidential, July 13, 2011, https://richmondconfidential.org/2011/07/13/part-6-north-richmonds-unceasing-battle/.

The Berkeley soil science students: “Healthy Soil in Richmond’s Concrete Jungle,” Just Food, podcast audio, Berkeley Food Institute, November 2, 2017, https://food.berkeley.edu/resources/just-food-podcast/healthy-soil-richmonds-concrete-jungle/; http://food.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/SOILS.pdf.

In the fall of 2016, Doria and the Tilthers: Reis Thebault, “Urban Tilth Launches New Farm in North Richmond,” Richmond Confidential, October 19, 2016, https://richmondconfidential.org/2016/10/19/urban-tilth-launches-new-farm-in-north-richmond/.

Around Labor Day that year, the San Francisco Bay Area: Brendan Weber, “Hottest Temperatures Ever Recorded in the Bay Area,” NBC Bay Area, September 3, 2017, https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/hottest-temperatures-ever-recorded-bay-area/30810/.

The following year, heat waves: “Southern California Heat Wave Breaks Records,” CBS News, July 6, 2018, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/southern-california-heat-wave-breaks-records-in-los-angeles-today-2018-07-06/.

In May 2018, the city of Richmond: Ted Goldberg, “Chevron, Richmond Settle Lawsuit over 2012 Refinery Fire,” KQED, May 3, 2018, https://www.kqed.org/news/11665999/chevron-richmond-move-to-settle-lawsuit-over-2012-refinery-fire-that-sickened-thousands.

By comparison, Chevron’s CEO, Michael Wirth: George Avalos, “Chevron Execs Capture Big Pay Raises, CEO Made $33 Million in 2019,” East Bay Times, April 7, 2020, https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2020/04/07/chevron-execs-capture-big-pay-raises-ceo-made-33-million-in-2019/.

Meanwhile, the Richmond refinery continued: Denis Cuff, “New Year’s Eve Gasp: Chevron Refinery Emits Gases from Flare,” East Bay Times, January 2, 2018, https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/01/02/new-years-eve-gasp-chevron-refinery-emits-gases-from-flare/; Ted Goldberg, “Chevron Flaring Took Place After Four Steam Boilers Malfunctioned,” KQED, April 16, 2018, https://www.kqed.org/news/11662610/chevron-flaring-took-place-after-four-steam-boilers-malfunctioned.

Local activists said they were pollution: Greg Karras, Carla M. Pérez, Jessica Guadalupe Tovar, and Adrienne Bloch, Flaring Prevention Measures, Communities for a Better Environment, April 2007.

In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: IPCC, “Summary for Policymakers,” in Global Warming of 1.5°C: An IPCC Special Report, ed. Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Panmao Zhai, Hans-Otto Pörtner, Debra C. Roberts, James Skea, Priyadarshi R. Shukla, Anna Pirani, et al., World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

A pair of earth scientists announced: Manoochehr Shirzaei and Roland Bürgmann, “Global Climate Change and Local Land Subsidence Exacerbate Inundation Risk to the San Francisco Bay Area,” Science Advances 4, no. 3 (March 1, 2018): eaap9234, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9234.

That summer, the Richmond city council: Resolution of the Council of the City of Richmond, Declaring a Climate Emergency, Res. 69-18, July 24, 2018, http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/8947.

some experts say they could also fail in the long term: Greg Karras, Decommissioning California Refineries: Climate and Health Paths in an Oil State, Communities for a Better Environment: Huntington Park, Oakland, Richmond, and Wilmington, CA, 2020, https://www.cbecal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Decomm-CA-Refineries-July2020.pdf.

California beat its 2020 goals: Dale Kasler, “California Beats Its 2020 Goals for Cutting Greenhouse Gases,” Sacramento Bee, July 11, 2018, https://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article214717585.html.

And as such a facility reduces its carbon output, it also generally gasps out: Much of this analysis is based on reporting I’ve done on cap-and-trade and environmental justice over the last ten years, including for an article titled “Will California’s Cap and Trade Be Fair?” published on March 20, 2013, in The Nation, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/will-californias-cap-and-trade-be-fair/.

But many experts say the Golden State: Paul Rogers, “California’s Behind on Its 2030 Climate Goals. What’s at Stake If It Doesn’t Catch Up?” Mercury News, January 16, 2020, https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/01/16/new-study-more-renewable-energy-electric-vehicles-needed-for-california-to-hit-greenhouse-gas-targets.

According to an investigation by ProPublica: Lisa Song, “Cap and Trade Is Supposed to Solve Climate Change, but Oil and Gas Company Emissions Are Up,” ProPublica, November 15, 2019, https://www.propublica.org/article/cap-and-trade-is-supposed-to-solve-climate-change-but-oil-and-gas-company-emissions-are-up?token=6OpPu6Rt0wdCykgO57Up0RfvUivWw30A.

In the fall of 2018, the governor: Mark Hertsgaard, “At the Global Climate Action Summit, Brown and Bloomberg Make Bold New Pledges,” Nation, September 13, 2018, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/at-the-global-climate-action-summit-brown-and-bloomberg-make-bold-new-pledges/.

Big green crates of food from Urban Tilth’s: Cameron Nielsen, “Urban Farmers in Richmond Are Helping in the Fight Against Food Insecurity,” Richmond Confidential, November 5, 2020, https://richmondconfidential.org/2020/11/05/urban-farmers-in-richmond-are-helping-in-the-fight-against-food-insecurity/.

And in late April the price of crude oil: “US Oil Prices Turn Negative as Demand Dries Up,” BBC News, April 21, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52350082.

By the summer, investigative journalist: Antonia Juhasz, “The End of Oil Is Near,” Sierra, August 24, 2020, https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2020-5-september-october/feature/end-oil-near.

His organization had released a report, authored: Karras, Decommissioning California Refineries.

In late July, the oil and gas company Marathon: Ted Goldberg, “Shutdown of Marathon’s Martinez Refinery Prompts Calls for ‘Just Transition’ for Oil Workers,” KQED, August 3, 2020, https://www.kqed.org/news/11831607/shutdown-of-marathons-martinez-refinery-prompts-calls-for-just-transition-for-oil-workers; “Phillips 66 to Close Refinery on Nipomo Mesa, Phase Out Associated Pipelines,” Santa Maria Times, https://santamariatimes.com/news/san_luis_obispo_county_news/phillips-66-to-close-refinery-on-nipomo-mesa-phase-out-associated-pipelines/article_6b52217c-2a3b-5fe8-a68a-93ae8390b525.html.

Beyond that, a solar company had opened a sixty-acre farm: Aaron Davis, “New 10.5 Megawatt Solar Farm Opens on Site of Former Chevron Landfill in Richmond,” East Bay Times, April 18, 2018, https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/04/18/new-10-5-megawatt-solar-farm-opens-on-site-of-former-chevron-landfill-in-richmond/.

That same week, an eight-thousand-gallon tanker truck: “Update: Tanker Truck Fire Shuts Down I-80; Richmond Shelter-in-Place Order Lifted; Westbound Lanes Reopened,” October 24, 2020, https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/10/24/tanker-fire-interstate-80-hilltop-emergency/.

On November 2, 2020, the day before the election: “Flaring Activity Reported at Chevron Richmond Refinery,” ABC7, November 2, 2020, https://abc7news.com/richmond-chevron-refinery-flaring-fire/7585937/.

During 2021, community activists: NRDC, “Groups Recommend Steps for Just Transition Roadmap,” news release, February 10, 2021, https://www.nrdc.org/media/2021/210210.

Epilogue

The days were thirty to forty degrees above normal: Jason Samenow and Ian Livingston, “Canada Sets New All-Time Heat Record of 121 Degrees amid Unprecedented Heat Wave,” Washington Post, June 29, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/06/27/heat-records-pacific-northwest/.

Just north of Seattle, transportation crews shut down: “Pavement on I-5 Buckles in Extreme Seattle Heat,” KING5, June 29, 2021, https://www.king5.com/article/traffic/traffic-news/i5-pavement-buckles-extreme-seattle-heat/281-5a302ac2-304c-4fe8-9ac1-e0d76cf43c5f.

At the shores of the estuary that curves between Seattle: John Ryan, “Extreme Heat Cooks Shellfish Alive on Puget Sound Beaches,” KUOW, July 7, 2021, https://www.kuow.org/stories/extreme-heat-cooks-shellfish-alive-on-puget-sound-beaches?fbclid=IwAR1QX9JvVIN5dIH1LOF1-G09rb6Km87sC5La5ZlJ9lhNYcd4EC4Fbs2K_Aw.

The estimated human death toll: Nadja Popovich and Winston Choi-Schagrin, “Hidden Toll of the Northwest Heat Wave: Hundreds of Extra Deaths,” New York Times, August 11, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/11/climate/deaths-pacific-northwest-heat-wave.html.