The Museum Campus working group released its report Thursday and among the big wins for nature is a vision that includes establishing a Great Lakes Climate Lab on the city’s shoreline, positioning Chicago as a global leader in developing resilient solutions for urban areas.
Science & Nature
Vision includes ‘rewilding,’ creation of Climate Lab
The lateleaf oak has confounded botanists since it was first discovered in the 1930s. Scientists have been hard-pressed to find a single surviving example in recent decades. But a new discovery, pending genetic testing by Morton Arboretum, could put the tree back on the map.
“We are heartbroken by the act of violence in Highland Park on Monday,” a spokesperson for the garden said. “In times of crisis, nature can be healing.”
The 6-3 ruling declared that the Clean Air Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to regulate emissions from plants that contribute to global warming. The decision also could have a broader effect on other agencies’ regulatory efforts, from education to transportation and food.
Illinois environmental groups were quick to condemn the Supreme Court’s limits on the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and placed the state in opposition to the justices’ stance.
Climate change and the alarming trends of species extinction and habitat loss demand that conservation organizations think big. So The Land Conservancy of McHenry County stepped up its game.
By a 6-3 vote, with conservatives in the majority, the court said that the Clean Air Act does not give the Environmental Protection Agency broad authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming.
A Florida man drowned Monday in Lake Michigan after pulling a teenage female to safety from the water off Porter Beach at Indiana Dunes National Park, officials said.
The five planets that are visible to the naked eye are now lining up in a particularly unique formation in the early morning hours, all of them appearing in the same part of the sky. Want to catch the show? We’ve got tips.
Illinois is rebranding Asian carp as “copi” in a bid to get people to eat the invasive fish into submission. Fishermen are catching thousands of pounds a day and barely making a dent in the number of carp in waterways like the Illinois River, where it's estimated 20 million to 50 million could be harvested annually.
In 2021, worldwide emissions from making cement for buildings, roads and other infrastructure hit nearly 2.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide, which is more than 7% of the global carbon emissions. Twenty years ago, in 2002, cement emissions were some 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide.
We all knew that Granddad, the Shedd Aquarium’s long-lived Australian lungfish, was an old-timer. Now, five years after he shuffled off to the big fish tank in the sky, Granddad’s true age has been revealed.
The recent heat wave, coupled with lower than normal precipitation, has produced conditions ripe for what’s known as a “flash drought” in the Chicago area.
Friends of the Parks is re-starting the conversation surrounding the gaps in Chicago’s lakefront park system and what those four miles could mean for shoreline protection, promoting biodiversity and delivering green space to areas where it’s in short supply.
As a pair of wildfires skirt Flagstaff, the flames are crossing land dense with reminders of human existence through centuries — multilevel stone homes, rock carvings and pieces of clay and ceramic pots that have been well-preserved in the arid climate since long before fire suppression became a tactic.
In the coming week, about 70% of the U.S. population will see temperatures in the 90s, and almost 20% of people in the country will experience temperatures greater than 100 degrees. Many major metro areas, including Minneapolis, Chicago, Nashville, Memphis, Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta, may experience temps near or above 100.
