Every month I carefully track the most popular and significant environmental history articles, videos, audio, and other items making their way through the online environmental history (#envhist) community. You can read all of our past #EnvHist Worth Reading lists right here. Here are my choices for items most worth reading from March 2025.
1. Jamestown is Sinking
In their Places article, “Jamestown Is Sinking,” Daegan Miller and Greta Pratt explore the fluidity of time, place, and identity in the Anthropocene; the title of the article mirrors that of Pratt’s newest project, which Miller profiles in the piece. Through photography, Pratt documents the Tidewater region of Virginia, where rising waters and eroding coasts threaten to erase the birthplace of American colonial history. Her images blend history with the present, portraying descendants of Native and African peoples, colonial reenactors, and contemporary residents amid flooded yards and decaying landmarks. Miller writes that Pratt’s work captures the persistent presence of the past—slavery, colonization, environmental exploitation—while suggesting an uncertain, shifting future. As land disappears beneath rising waters, Pratt’s project reveals a world where identity, history, and environment are inextricably intertwined, always changing.
2. California water wars: A century of wrangling over Los Angeles’s water
In this piece for Aljazeera, Nick Hilden dives into a century of water history in Los Angeles, aiming to provide context for contemporary water issues and conflict. Hilden opens with the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam, which remains the deadliest engineering disaster in California history. Water conflicts didn’t end with the dam’s collapse; privatization, deregulation, and agricultural demands have since strained California’s water systems. Today, Hilden notes that homeowners face shortages as agribusinesses dominate access, sparking continued tension. “In recent decades, those interests have placed homeowners throughout the region at odds with large-scale producers of water-thirsty crops like almonds, oranges and pomegranates,” he writes.
3. Brisbane is bracing for floods yet again. History shows residents should remain on very high alert
Writing in the aftermath of heavy rains caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in Brisbane last month, Margaret Cook demonstrates in this Conversation article that Brisbane’s flood risk is heightened by its geography and history, with major floods in 1893, 1974, and 2022. Cook writes that authorities are urging vigilance and preparation, emphasizing proactive measures like improved stormwater management, resilient infrastructure, and better public education. Communities had time to prepare for Alfred, Cook notes, but continued caution is vital as more rain is forecast in the coming days. I found the accompanying flood modelling maps for different areas in Brisbane, which accompany the article, to be particularly interesting and informative.
4. Jimmy Carter’s Fishing Life – Historians At The Movies
In this episode of Historians at the Movies, Jason Herbert sits down with Jim Barger, Jr., who is the coauthor of Jimmy Carter: Rivers and Dreams: Rods, Reels, and Peace Deals, Plus the One that Got Away, a new biography that explores his life through stories of fishing and friendship, revealing how his love for the outdoors shaped his values and even foreign policy. Herbert calls for a “critical reappraisal” of Carter’s presidency, whose environmental legacy and strong character are often overlooked.
5. A Beetle By Any Other Name – 99 Percent Invisible
This episode of 99 Percent Invisible revolves around Anophthalmus hitleri, a tiny beetle named after Hitler. As the episode summary notes, current controversy over this beetle brings up two primary questions: “Should we rename species that were named after objectionable human beings? And even more broadly, should we be naming organisms after people at all?” The episode dives into the history of naming species and explores some possible, less-questionable, ways forward. The episode also reminded me of Jacqueline Scott’s 2021 piece for us, “Naming a Frog After Led Zeppelin is Not a Fairy Tale.”
Feature Image: “The Brisbane Flood, 1893” by Queensland State Archives is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.
