E.B. White described how New York's commuters gave the city its "tidal restlessness." In this essay for The Nature We Make, I consider commuting as a force that shapes the geography of Boston and other cities. substack.tnwm.net/p/the-citys-...

The city's tidal rhythm

For better or worse, being a commuter lets me be a part of a larger force shaping urban life.

substack.tnwm.net

How comfortable should camping be? I explore my own ambivalence about where to draw the line between comfort and deprivation in the essay for the @bostonglobe.com #camping #nature #travel #essay (paywall) www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/20/m...

Glancing out my yurt window at rain-soaked tents, I wondered: Was I actually camping? - The Boston Globe

If you’re bringing all the comforts of home, maybe you should just book a hotel.

bostonglobe.com

Climate Change and the Future of Boston by @strangestsea.com will soon be available in paperback! Now available for pre-order from your favorite bookseller. MSRP $35

The Fort Pointer@fortpointer.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Boston is fortunate to have a wealth of top notch climate reporters, writers and researchers. Courtney Humphries ranks among them, and her new book “Climate Change and the Future of Boston” is a MUST-READ. Incredibly well-researched, it’s an eye-opener. 🔥 @universalhub.com @strangestsea.com

Looking back at six months of writing essays for The Nature We Make. Check it out if you're interested in #nature, #cities, #ecology, #urbangeography, or just connecting with the built environment a little more. substack.tnwm.net/p/six-months...

Six months of seeing cities differently

A look back on some of the questions about urban environments that have shaped The Nature We Make

substack.tnwm.net

My latest essay for The Nature We Make explores how we create, destroy, and try to sustain beaches. open.substack.com/pub/courtney...

What's a beach, really?

Natural, artificial, or something in between, beaches are a mirror of what we value and what we're afraid to lose.

open.substack.com

How is Boston working to address its vulnerability to sea level rise? I'm excited to have an excerpt in @nextcity.org from my new book, Climate Change and the Future of Boston, laying out the context and challenges. nextcity.org/urbanist-news/boston-has-a-plan-for-sea-level-rise-now-what?

Boston Has a Plan for Sea Level Rise. What Next?

Decades of land reclamation left the city vulnerable to flooding. Now Boston faces harder questions: how to finance flood protection, whether to keep building on the waterfront, and whether retreat is...

nextcity.org

Boston area folks: I'll be speaking at UMass Boston this week about my new book, Climate Change and the Future of Boston. University Dining Club, 2nd floor, Campus Center. Wednesday, May 6, 1 PM - 2 PM EDT. And there's food! www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-...

Book Talk: Climate Change and the Future of Boston

This event is co-sponsored by the Sustainable Solutions Lab and the School for the Environment.

eventbrite.com

Boston is fortunate to have a wealth of top notch climate reporters, writers and researchers. Courtney Humphries ranks among them, and her new book “Climate Change and the Future of Boston” is a MUST-READ. Incredibly well-researched, it’s an eye-opener. 🔥 @universalhub.com @strangestsea.com

In this blog post for @anthempress.bsky.social, I point out reasons to be hopeful about what local action in the U.S. can achieve around climate change. My book, Climate Change and the Future of Boston, profiles one city's progress. blog.anthempress.com/2026/04/02/h...

Does urbanization create less diverse environments? The answer is surprisingly complex. My latest post looks at research on how urbanization can generate biodiversity. open.substack.com/pub/courtney...

Is urban nature (basically) all the same?

Biodiversity in urban areas is more complex that we give it credit for

open.substack.com

Local leadership and action are critical for keeping momentum on climate change. In my latest post, in reflect on my new book on Boston and a climate resilience conference in Miami. open.substack.com/pub/courtney...

A local view of urban climate action

Despite federal politics and fiscal challenges, cities and communities are transforming urban environments

open.substack.com

Check out this discussion about my new book with Anthem Press, "Climate Change and the Future of Boston," with Dr. Miranda Melcher on the New Books Network podcast. @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social newbooksnetwork.com/climate-chan...

I’ve been thinking about the materials we live with, where they come from, and how they transform us and the larger world. My latest Substack post is a meditation on asphalt as physical and social connective tissue. open.substack.com/pub/courtney...

Living in a paved world

Asphalt is the paver of paradise and our constant companion. How did it become the built world’s connective tissue?

open.substack.com

Forest bathing is a popular way to improve well-being by connecting with nature. Can we feel this connection right where we are, in the built environment? My latest essay for The Nature We Make on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/courtney...

"Infrastructure bathing"

Forest bathing is a popular way to improve well-being by connecting with nature. Can we feel this connection right where we are, in the built environment?

open.substack.com

“The Coolest Spot in Paradise.” Space savers standing by in Dorchester. #boston #snow #streetscape

I appreciate this line from @mbolotnikova.bsky.social: “Our built environment is the physical container for our lives, shaping our entire daily existence and our interactions with our families and communities.” The beauty, quality, and materiality of the day-to-day built environment matters.

Can America build beautiful places again? — Vox

The root of America’s housing affordability crisis isn’t complicated in the abstract: We need to build more homes (4 million more, to be more or less precise). More sprawl isn’t working — our dependen...

apple.news

Marina Bolotnikova@mbolotnikova.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Why is the modern American built environment overwhelmingly ugly & soul-deadening? And should YIMBYs care? Our housing crisis is a nightmare for millions of Americans, but could it also, maybe, be a rare invitation to rebuild the way we live? Beauty matters! I wrote about it here (gift link):

I’m launching a new Substack newsletter, The Nature We Make, https://substack.tnwm.net . It's grown out of many years studying and writing about urban nature, which has convinced me that we need spaces to encourage connection to the natural world, even within the built environment.

“The 2030s are going to be a tough time for Boston.” apps.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/metr... @erinmdouglas23.bsky.social — and @cehumphries.bsky.social — on "sunny-day flooding" in Boston and ongoing failures to address it. #WhenTheFloodsCome

Morrissey Blvd. floods multiple times a year. It's a symptom of a statewide problem.

The Dorchester parkway, one of Boston’s starkest examples of climate impacts, is inundated multiple times a year.

apps.bostonglobe.com

To make cities better, we need to see them as part of nature and steward our built infrastructure the way we do the green stuff, I argue in this essay for ⁦@BostonGlobeMag ⁩ #cities #infrastructure #nature #ecology #boston

Thank you to @NepRWA for hosting me as speaker at its annual meeting tonight! It was truly energizing to meet so many people working on #ecosystem health and #ClimateResilience in this region.

Even before the recent Twitter drama, I was on Mastodon and can be found at @courtney@daedal.io. I hope to see you there!

It's nice to see my earlier @GlobeIdeas story discussed in this piece on the "glassification" of #cities in @Poynter. This is an ongoing issue even as cities step up their commitments to #sustainability and #resilience.

Looking forward to being part of this virtual discussion about sea level rise in Boston later today! Register here

An innovative project in Boston Harbor uses inexpensive vegetation mats for flood protection. I do wish articles like these clarified the difference between protecting from waves/surge and rising sea levels/tides. We need multiple strategies.

I’m excited to graduate with my #PhD from UMass Boston, and honored to be Graduate Commencement Speaker today!

Spotted on this beautiful day in Boston Common: the annual #Boston #fishweir project, a reminder that this land was once tidelands and stewarded for its natural resources.

A great story by ⁦@zteirstein⁩ looking at the complex tradeoffs involved in pursuing cleaner energy.

With community input, a revitalization project along the Malden River strives to mix waterfront recreation and industry. by @bytimlogan

Fascinating story about restoring urban rivers by rebuilding their microbe-rich “guts,” by ⁦@egies⁩.

Excited to be part of this fabulous virtual panel tonight talking about coastal adaptation in Boston and beyond.