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Nearly 100 years ago, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Harland Bartholomew designed a master plan for the city of Los Angeles, drawing a ring around the river at its heart. The plan addressed their concern about the rapid urbanization of cities in the West, which was frequently pushing nature to the outskirts. By centering the river and allowing it to move freely amid fields and wetlands, the planners envisioned a public green space where distant neighborhoods could come together as one. But the plan was quickly dismissed as out of step with the industrialist vision of the 1920s and 30s. Then, in 1938, after a devastating flood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to build concrete channels that separated the river from its ecosystem and continue to confine it today. Copies of the original plan still exist, one of which sits in the Los Angeles Public Library, where it fell into the hands of the artist and video game designer Alice Bucknell. A still from The Alluvials [Image: courtesy Alice Bucknell] For Bucknell, the plan served as an essential bridge to the past, and it laid the groundwork for their visionary project, The Alluvials, a computer-generated, speculative fiction world, accessible through both a film and a video game. The Alluvials, which reimagines L.A. through the lens of water and the natural world, brings the lost dream of the Olmsted-Bartholomew plan to liferemixed as a private development known as Next LA, where the river has been transformed into a teeming wetland filled with iridescent beams of light. A series of ethereal voices guide the audience through a climate-stricken Western water system, from the dried-up basin of the Hoover Dam to the fire-torn Malibu coast. Like the plan that inspired it, The Alluvials issues a warning about where society is heading. In the midst of its eco-surrealist imagery, Bucknell offers a stark picture of the future: a deserted downtown, near-total drought, and corporate control over the remaining water resources. But by infusing this dystopian landscape with alternative histories, from the Olmsted-Bartholomew report to an Indigenous sacred site, Bucknell presents a compelling vision of what Los Angeles might have been and what it could still be. The film version of The Alluvials is divided into seven chapters, and the video game contains interactive versions of four of them. The film opens with aerial shots peering down into the city, which has become half desert, then cuts rhythmically through the regions aquatic ecosystems, each rendered in the digital universe with a neon tech-noir aesthetic. Along the way, viewers meet a cast of familiar characters: the celebrity mountain lion P-22; the Lassen pack of gray wolves from Northern California; and El Aliso, a sycamore tree that once served as a meeting place for leaders of the Kizh-Gabrieleo Tribe, the original occupants of the Los Angeles River Basin. Bucknell was walking the streets of downtown L.A., a few blocks from the design school SCI-Arc, where they teach, when they stumbled upon the plaque for El Aliso. The memorial was created by members of the tribe in 2015 to honor the tree, which had long served as a place of worship and gathering. Set into concrete by Highway 101, however, the story all but disappearsmaking it precisely the kind of the history that Bucknell felt was important to center in their work. In The Alluvials, El Aliso grows tall in the reforested earth of Next LA. The sycamore tells its own story to players: how it lived for more than 400 years, witnessing waves of colonization and shading lush wineries before it was felled to make way for commercial development. In front of the tree, the memorial plaque hangs, embossed as an enormous hologram, like a curators introduction to the work of a venerated artist. In this fictional world scarred by climate disaster, El Aliso appears like an oasis, a momentary glimpse into what a worthy burial might have looked like, and a reminder of the many stories that 400-year-old trees can still tell. Bucknell amplifies the power of El Alisos story by bringing this nonhuman being back to vivid life. Stills from The Alluvials [Image: courtesy Alice Bucknell] The artist also celebrates the long history of the yucca moth, which is often outshone by its iconic companion, the Joshua tree. In the dried-out upper basin of Hoover Dam, The Alluvials recounts the symbiotic relationship between the yucca moth and the Joshua tree, describing it as an entrancing love story that dates back more than 40 million years. The depiction is not only uplifting, as it casts a flurry of white moths like snow against red rock; it is also a reminder of how complex relationships can be sustained throughout many ages of the Earth. The Alluvials universe is at its most powerful when viewers are completely immersed in the ambiguity of time. Racing along the lush L.A. River, you can’t tell if you’re deep in the future, experiencing the artificial paradise of Next LA, or deep in the past, exploring the imagination of Olmsted and Bartholomew. By the same token, the spell is broken when the script too closely resembles the modern day. In a later chapter of the film, for instance, viewers learn that Next LAs private water developer puts mood stabilizers in bottled water to combat chronic anxiety over constant wildfires. Its a satire that hits too close to home. Zooming out, however, Bucknells signature cyberpunkfrom the beating electronic score to fluorescent animal silhouetteslargely erases time altogether. Staring up at the dense galaxy of animated stars, I almost wished I didnt find it so beautiful. Born in the mid-1990s, I remember the precise years when my peers began to diverge into those who spent more time offline, lacing up boots and heading outdoors, and those who found greater fulfillment in the community and self-expression found in cyberspace. Both worlds offer their own comfort and sense of control, and sometimes I dont know which I find more breathtakingthe natural cathedrals of mountains and oceans, or the technologica systems made possible by generations of human hands and minds. Throughout The Alluvials, particularly on the banks of the river, I felt grateful to live in this age of the Earth, when one person can so completely render their imagination into an immersive experience that others can enjoy. Whatever the limitations of the human world, whether bureaucracy or debate, artists can overcome them and create wonders that never made it into reality. This work goes hand in hand with advocacy; in the development of their game, Bucknell worked closely with the nonprofit Friends of the LA River, which for decades has worked to build more connected green space along the river. A still from The Alluvials [Image: courtesy Alice Bucknell] Some critics may be quick to dismiss The Alluvials for its style or poetic flourishes, but they cannot deny its broad appeal to a growing audience. The film and game have been featured at over a dozen exhibitions and festivals, from Los Angeles to Madrid, and Bucknell continues to offer access to both by request via their website. Computer-generated worlds are steadily eclipsing traditional storytelling formats like books and magazines. In this context, Bucknells work stands as a compelling contribution to Californias climate fiction, echoing the legacy of the speculative fiction of Octavia Butler, who first offered scenes of a fire-torn California to the popular imagination back in the 1990s. But times have changed; Bucknell and other artists of the 21st century no longer have to imagine what that future might look like. Their task is much harder: They remind us that, to paraphrase Butler, looking into the future is still, as much as it was before, an act of hope. This story was originally published by High Country News.
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It’s popular right now to talk about meritocracy and how we want the most talented people to be able to rise to the top. Yet that’s not the reality for many. Lots of people experience a workplace reality where they see a few charmed people become the darlings of leadership. These darlings get recognized for their contributions and fast-tracked for honor, opportunity, and promotions. Sometimes, that’s for good reason. If you’re feeling jealous of the office favorite, it’s worth trying to be objective. Perhaps you wanted the recognition and reward and didnt get it, and so you’re projecting your frustration on someone who really deserves the recognition. But, there really can be favorites at work. There is a phenomenon in psychology called the “halo effect,” in which an initial positive impression of someone can lead you to interpret all of their subsequent actions more charitably than you might if you didnt have that initial positive impression. So, what do you do if youre not the favorite, and you keep watching others get rewarded for their merit, while you get passed over? Play the long game Halo effects are a result of first impressions. While you dont get a second chance to make a first impression on someone, the merry-go-round of organizations means that youre likely to have many chances to make first impressions on influential people. Your supervisor may move on to another role. You may move to a different part of the organization. That means you need to continue doing good workeven when you arent being recognized for it. Stifle the urge to complain about the success of others. Be a good colleague and develop a reputation of being trustworthy. Over the long-term, that will help. You also have to hone your skills at making a good first impression. If you find that you have trouble communicating in public or in small groups, then consider getting some training. Join a public speaking group like Toastmasters to get more practice. Pay attention to how your habits affect impressions. Show up to meetings and work on time. If you tend to dress in a way that differs from the norm at work, think about whether that is affecting other peoples initial sense of who you are. Individuality and free expression through your appearance are important values, but you should decide whether they are the hill to die on at work. Create new opportunities Even if you dont experience any leadership changes, you can still bring yourself to the attention of new people. Large organizations typically require a lot of projects that cross silos to bring people together in a significant effort. If you get involved in those projects, you’ll invariably meet lots of new people. Seek out ways to be part of these other projectsprovided you have bandwidth to do so. There are two benefits to these engagements. First, you have an opportunity to make a good impression on a new group of people. Second, people you help from other groups may then pass their positive impressions back to your supervisor and others in your area of the organization. These positive comments that come from others can often lead people who know you to reevaluate their impressions. Make your case It’s hard to toot your own horn, and you certainly dont want to do it all the time. But when the right opportunities come about, you need to help guide peoples impressions of you. Your annual performance evaluations with your supervisor are a place where you can try to reset the way you are seen. There’s a tendency to use those evaluations as a way to list all of the things you have done during the year. Rather than just listing the things you have done, focus on specific ways you would like to change how you are perceived by your supervisor. Organize your discussion of your accomplishments for the year in a way that highlights those aspects of your work that you want to emphasize. Help your supervisor to see aspects of your contribution that may not ordinarily be obvious. You wont completely overcome a lackluster first impression with one meeting. But, you may help your supervisor to start seeing aspects of your performance that they have missed in the past. That work can slowly help your supervisor (and others) to see the contribution youre making.
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E-Commerce
When the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently removed the Future Risk Index tool from its website, it not only took away a critical way to quantify the economic impacts of climate changeit also wiped out years of data from multiple federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency. But before all that data went offline, two software engineers were able to re-create the toolrebuilding it themselves and sharing it on their GitHub free of charge. The Trump administration has been scrubbing all sorts of information from government websites, from details about U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) work to pages that mention DEI to anything concerning climate change. FEMAs Future Risk Index was another recent casualty of those efforts. The tool, launched in December 2024, mapped the projected economic losses from climate change down to the county level, based on hazards like flooding, drought, heat waves, and wildfires under different emissions scenarios. In February, the map was quietly removed from the government website. But before that happened, Rajan Desai and Jeremy Herzog, who both work at the consulting firm Fulton Ring, were tipped off that it would likely come down. In preparation, they took screenshots and downloaded the available data so that they could rebuild it themselves. Though theyre not climate expertsDesais background is primarily in data science and Herzogs is in software engineeringDesai says they believed this could be one tangible way to actively fight the destruction thats happening at the federal level right now. Theyre not alone; online archivists, amateur or otherwise, have been rushing to save data sets, web pages, and tools from government websites amid the Trump administrations attacks. To Desai and Herzog, it was clear that the tool was important, and the result of months of work across agencies. There was basically about a year’s worth of taxpayer-funded resources that were put into this tool, and it’s ultimately for public consumption, Desai says. (FEMA did not return a request for comment about the tool or its removal.) The Future Risk Index was a supplement to FEMAs National Risk Index, an interactive map that shows which communities are most at risk from various climate hazards. (As of publication, that index is still on FEMAs website). But the Future Risk Index was different in that it included data on the effects of climate change, and how those hazards would become both more frequent and more severe over time. While the National Risk Index could show expected annual losses from climate hazards over the next few years, for example, the Future Risk Index took that further, all the way to mid-century, when the impacts of climate change will be even more extremewhen the sea level could rise more than 8 feet and global temperatures could be 3 degrees Celsius hotter on average. [Image: Fulton Ring] That made the Future Risk Index a crucial tool for people like tribal leaders, local and state elected officials, urban planners, and businesses, because it made the sometimes ambiguous effects of climate change into tangible economic impacts. Looking at Miami-Dade County, for example, the National Risk Index showed that the county could expect annual losses of up to $5.9 million from coastal floodingbut the Future Risk Index showed that by mid-century, even under a lower emissions scenario, those projected annual losses could skyrocket to $29 million. It also showed which hazards (wildfires or floods, for example) would be more or less impactful in a specific area, helping communities prioritize their resources and plan for the future. An internal FEMA worker first reached out to Desai about saving the tool; swift action was crucial. Though they were able to get a version up on their Github and quickly offer an alternative, Desai and Herzog are realistic about the limitations to this ad hoc way of preserving government projects. They took on the task for free, and plan to keep the tool free, but theyre also a small consulting firm with limited resources (Herzog is the cofounder, while Desai is a data scientist there); they cant do much more to advance the toollike allow it to get more granular than county-level datawithout funds. It’s also now, essentially, frozen: It preserves the data the government already gathered, but theres no ability to update it as things change. Thats a reality with any individual or small team of archivists doing this work, and theres a threat, they say, that only big companies with vast resources will keep sharing such data and making these useful tools. In an ideal world, the government would be maintaining data sets, Herzog says. But with those coming offline, the only institutions with the actual capabilities to fill the need and take this work further are giant, private companieswhich have already been acquiescing to the Trump administration (like Googles move to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on its maps). When Desai and Herzog were reading the documents associated with the climate data they downloaded, they saw clearly that FEMA workers interviewed people from every agency with every data set they collected from NOAA, from NASA, etc., Desai says. The amount of work that was poured into this . . . it would take me months to put together. That speaks to the greater loss of these government resources, and the limitation on the private sector to fill the gaps, attempting to replace the work that was being done by thousands of people who have now been fired. More than 200 FEMA workers have been dismissed since January, and NOAA could soon see more than 1,000 firingsin addition to the more than 800 workers who were already let go. The documents the pair downloaded from FEMA also didn’t include all the specifics on methodology; some information was even censored. All that institutional knowledge held by FEMA staffers gets lost tooeven as citizens try to rebuild tools and bring information back online. Even the best efforts that people are doing to archive this data, theres so much information thats lost, Desai says. There’s more information that’s in people’s heads that is just not documented, and we’re never going to know what that information loss looks like.
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