“You read that right: The cost of climate-worsened wildfire smoke alone is larger than what earlier studies said every other estimated cost of climate change would be, combined.” heatmap.news/daily/worryi...

Frustration with corn-soy-CAFO ag—and its vast pollution problem—is boiling over in Iowa before Illinois. In Iowa there's no hiding from it; it's everywhere. But Chicago insulates Illinois’ political & economic center; our leaders can keep pretending “we’re feeding the world.”

Canada's Boreal Forest isn't a neighborhood park—it’s one of the largest intact ecosystems on Earth. 🌲 It covers roughly 1.3 billion acres (526 million hectares). That is an area comparable to the entire United States.

Same, never grew up with it ever being like this, and I lived in Chicago’s SE side which was full of steel mills and heavy industry at the time. AQI reached 747 last night and was the #1 worst AQ in the world. The new norm for Chicago, in addition to the “normal” pollution + heat. #climatechange

Sunrise

Justin Harbison, aka the "Sewer Monster," helps reduce mosquito populations that might carry the West Nile virus by treating Chicago-area sewers with insecticides aimed at killing recently hatched larvae before they become blood suckers.

Chicago AQI: 597 PM 10! Official US AQI scale tops out at 500—a public health emergency. This year, we had a drought, record tornadoes & rains, and now this. Add a hotter, drier world fueling large, intense & longer fire seasons. A glimpse of the climate future we’re failing to prevent.

Feel-good conservation can be dangerous. It’s easy to celebrate flowers blooming along roadsides. It’s harder to ask whether those flowers are leading pollinators into one of the most hazardous environments humans have created.

Due to wildfire smoke from Canada, Chicago's air quality is currently rated as "Hazardous" in many areas of the city. We are also facing hot, humid temperatures, increasing the health risk. Avoid outdoor activities and follow @chicagooemc.bsky.social & @cdph.bsky.social for updates.

New York has become the first US state to enforce a data center moratorium, as governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order today to pause construction for one year.

A single hot day is weather. Long-term changes in the frequency, intensity, timing, and risk of heat are climate. Understanding both helps people prepare, plan, and make better decisions. Climate.us helps explain the climate behind the weather. #ClimateUS #ClimateScience

Heat is increasingly shaping seasonality & spread of infectious diseases, especially with the heat-loving cyclospora (warm temps help their eggs mature). Climate change is expanding the environmental conditions that favor contamination & persistence. Cutting surveillance is just so self-defeating.

When we lose urban canopy with increased heat, people die. We have published research coming out real soon that will show this in Chicago. This is already known by communities who live within it, doctors who treat it, scientists who research it, and businesses and governments who ignore it.

Nation’s first-of-its-kind community-driven, public health-based HVI was built for this: turning community knowledge & public health data into cooling investments where they’re needed most. This is what implementation looks like. 👉 @buffett.northwestern.edu buffett.northwestern.edu/research/glo...

The massive system of tunnels and reservoirs was built to contain Chicago’s flood water. After more than 8 inches of rain over the past 30 days, the system is nearing capacity.

We frequently don’t know how complex mixtures interact, many chemicals have limited developmental or reproductive toxicity data, and real-world exposures rarely resemble laboratory studies. “No evidence of harm” and “evidence of no harm” are not the same thing.

It's hot. 3000-all-time-temperature-records-broken-this-year-alone hot. This year might even dethrone 2024 as the hottest on record. Drink all the water you want (really, do!) but extreme heat is not deterred by personal solutions... because it isn't a personal problem. It's a public policy one.

During Water Dept’s presentation, they’ll remove >11,100 trees during pipe replacement w/o replanting them. They said it’s the price of clean water. This translates to 3+ deaths/yr & >$39M/yr from heat mortality alone. Just another dumping of canopy & heat-health costs onto neighborhoods again.

Did you know that the Fourth of July fireworks could put a dog through this much fear and anxiety? 😔 When choosing how to celebrate, keep in mind that it should be fun for everyone, no matter the species!

New ocean temperature record set as fossil fuel keeps dumping zettajoules (look it up — big-ass number!) of excess heat into the ocean every year. “Nothing to see here,” say the polluters. They lie. marine.copernicus.eu/press/press-...

Pesticides drifted onto a school in Morton, IL. The farmer was fined $250K. @prairierivers.bsky.social backs a bill requiring notice before spraying near schools; it could have protected the kids AND the farmer. Farm Bureau, Corn Growers & Soy Assoc. should reconsider their opposition.

“When I see the “Obamalisk” towering over the South Side like a Giza-like homage to a pharaoh, I think that our next “No Kings” rally might warrant an addition,” writes Stephen J. Lyons.

I’ve never seen two pigeons fighting over using a birdbath. It’s hot out there. Keep your birdbaths filled with fresh water. 🥵

Two days into the year’s first heatwave, health and community advocates say Chicago’s response should ensure vulnerable residents have access to cooling once the sun goes down.

Why did our ruling class not invest in decarbonising faster to avoid this acceleration in deadly heatwaves that scientists warned would come? Because of the capitalist law of value.

Meet Buddy, Frankie, Mavis, and Tweedy! Today, each of your 2026 Chicago Piping Plover chicks received their unique leg bands and along with them their name. Here are the names and leg band combinations. 1/3

Don’t wait until heat arrives to begin protecting yourself. The forecast calls for extreme heat this week, you can begin preparing NOW. More: weather.gov/safety/heat

Fantastic investigative journalism by @chicagotribune.com's Jonathan Bullington & @adrianaperez.bsky.social on Illinois' ~3,900 abandoned oil & gas wells: Holes left in farm fields that leak soil-killing brine, vent methane, and poison groundwater. And a $160M cleanup tab left for taxpayers. 🧵

Good news, @govpritzker.illinois.gov signs protections against federal environmental rollbacks. @ilepa.bsky.social initiated bill will prevent the IL Pollution Control Board from being required to automatically adopt weakened federal environmental rules.

This isn’t new, others have recognized legal rights for rivers, lakes, forests, ecosystems & animals because conventional protections too often treat living systems as property until after the damage is done. Maybe this is what it’ll take to better protect nature.

More than half of the continental US is facing drought conditions, and climate change is making them more frequent. UCS’s Rachel Cleetus was part of a @pbsnews.org conversation on how drought affects farmers and how we can address these challenges as a nation. Learn more:

Look at that. So it can be done in big cities.

Find the #PipingPlover. #SleepingBear

to help birds chicagocollisionscoalition.org

IL broke its🌪️record at 147 so far this yr, more than any state, including Tornado Alley. Question isn’t whether climate change caused every tornado. It’s whether warming, rain, land use, aging infrastructure, vulnerable housing, outages, flooding & preparedness gaps are increasing risk. They are.

Thank you to Chicago Bird Collision Monitors Susan and Liberty for rescuing this goose today at Montrose! Bird allies, your help is needed to promote proper disposal of fishing line as well as cleaning it up, when seen. There is a fishing line receptacle on the pier. 📸: Steva Stowell-Hardcastle

Kamala Harris’s quest for the White House was rooted in a political tradition of nonviolence pioneered by black women. In the wake of Gaza, the broad promise of that tradition proved too much for her to bear

First Looks! Remember the first rule of Plover Club: You do not lose it if a picture has less than 4 chicks in it. 😉 (A 🐥🐥🐥🐥 picture will be rare.) 📸: Chicago Piping Plovers (Imani and chicks, Montrose Protected Beach, June 16, 2026)

The ‘super El Niño’ is here. What happens next could upend food systems worldwide. #Climate

🐞Plants got hammered by aphids. 🐞Nature balances this out-ladybugs keep aphids in check. But warm weather, less trees, pesticides & leaf cleanup (habitat loss), aphids had a head start. 🐞Released 750 native convergent lady beetles & let nature take its course. Make room for nature to do its thing.

Hundreds of people rode together through Bridgeport to honor Riley O’Neil, a champion of improving road safety who was doored and then fatally struck by a vehicle while biking over the weekend.

The ocean is not distant from us, it connects every aspect of life on Earth. This World Oceans Day, we are called to reimagine our relationship with the ocean: moving from passive beneficiaries to active guardians of its future.

Data centers are asking just too much for too little in return. I'm pausing the release of any new data center tax incentives in Illinois — and I'm calling on the General Assembly to act in veto session to make sure data centers are paying their fair share.

The most common microplastic in your body probably didn’t come from a plastic bottle. It came from your tires. Every vehicle is a microplastic factory. We don’t just drive through the pollution. We inhale it. New essay: open.substack.com/pub/lylel/p/...

Happy #WorldEnvironmentDay!  Join us in celebrating our planet and recognizing the power we all have to protect it.   Every voice matters. Every move counts. Join the movement.  Together, let’s act #NowForClimate for this generation and the next.

Two decades ago, Illinois passed a law to hold diesel-fueled vehicles accountable for excessive idling. Since then, Chicago and Cook County law enforcement agencies have issued just two citations, records show.

Looks like El Niño is back, with more heatwaves and weather uncertainty, not what we want in a warming world. Another reason for Governments to support clean energy and reduce energy costs. wmo.int/news/media-c...

More than a half-century of plastic — everything from water bottles to deflated party balloons to food packaging to synthetic clothing fibers — have despoiled the Great Lakes and over time broken down into tiny, long-lived particles.

Birds keep our ecosystems healthy, from fertilizing and seeding to keep forests and people healthy by eating insects, think #OneHealth. They aren't separate from us and the environments we depend on for our very own livelihood. Below, I rescued a stunned warbler that crashed into a window.