Results tagged “environment”

Whether or not you still have sore feelings about one of Chicago's most recognizable landmarks being renamed by the Brits, there is at least one good thing coming from the switch: the building will receive an upwards of $300 million green makeover.

Updated studies show that by 2015 some outlying suburbs could face a long-term water shortage according to Crain's. Water supplies are not going to dry up but projections by the University of Illinois Water Survey show that water supplies won't be able to keep up with population growth. As a result, pumping water from them will become cost-inefficient said Josh Ellis, a water policy expert at the Metropolitan Planning Council. He told Crain's:

Communities served by Lake Michigan face the same long-term problem. From drinking water to the reversal of the Chicago River, the Chicago region is now diverting 85% of the lake water that a Supreme Court decision allows; without conservation, that limit could be reached in 15 years.

The Illinois attorney general's office has sued a Chicago recycling company for misusing $88,000 of state grant money administered during former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's term, the Tribune reports.

• Michael Jackson's death has been ruled a homicide.
• It was a clout-y first day of the Fall 2009 term at the University of Illinois today.
• Bensenville's village president has conceded the fight against O'Hare expansion but is still expressing concern for effects on the city's maintenance.

It seems a Chicagoan was in on the act the other day when a bunch of environmental protesters unfurled a giant banner over the face of Abe Lincoln (outrage!) at Mt. Rushmore yesterday. According to the Daily Herald, Chicagoan Mary Sweeters was involved and Greenpeace officials indicated at least one more Illinois resident may have been a part. The Daily Herald has the full scoop on what went down.

A hotel for Chicago's aquatic citizens has recently opened for its fifth season.

If President Obama gets his way, the Great Lakes could be in for a nice clean-up come next year. The President's 2010 budget, released in February asked for an additional $475 million in funds to clean the Lakes; if the funding were approved, it would put the yearly cost of funding for the Great Lakes at over $1 billion per year. Per the Associated Press (via WBBM):

We're still wading our way through the behemoth that is the Chicago 2016 Bid Book (no, seriously, it's f#$@&%! huge) but the Associated Press has already latched on to one of the aspects of the bid that the city is hoping will put us over the top: bein' green. At the heart of the green aspect of the city's proposal is the usage of lots of green space and space along Lake Michigan for event venues.

      

Since May 8, thousands of visitors have been amazed by the style, innovation and comfort of the Museum of Science and Industry's Smart Home: Green and Wired. The Museum, in partnership with Wired Magazine and architect Michelle Kaufmann, built an entire house, complete with landscaping, on the lawn outside the Henry Crown Space Center. Visitors can tour the entire house (including the utilities spaces, the roof and the grounds) with a guide for a small additional fee. We had the opportunity to visit the Smart Home a few weeks ago, and our recommendation is simple: If you haven't been, go right now.

No updates yet on that proposed mandate which would require Chicago cab companies to convert to hybrid cars, but it seems that a high number of Chicago and other Illinois residents are personally making the switch. While California strongly outpaces all other states for new hybrid vehicle registrations, statewide financial incentives and the price of gas are helping to keep both the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois in the top five on lists for new hybrid sales.

According to a letter the EPA sent Governor Blagojevich, air quality in 14 Illinois Counties—Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will, Grundy, Kendall, Rock Island, Massac, Madison, Monroe, St. Clair and Randolph—does not meet federal pollution standards. Prepare ye wrists for slapping, Illinois! "The EPA said it intends to settle on its final soot nonattainment list by Dec. 18. Counties included on that list would face pressure to cut levels of microscopic soot produced by power plants, diesel-burning trucks, cars and factories." [AP, Trib]

Swiss adventurer Louis Palmer is driving a solar-powered car around to highlight the feasibility of alternative fuels. He cruised through Chicago yesterday in his two-seat, three-wheeled contraption that tops out around 55mph. [AP, ABC 7]

Vendors at any of the 24 Chicago-run farmers markets won’t be able to participate in next year’s selling season unless they stop using plastic bags. The bag ban, imposed by the city of Chicago, is meant to reinforce the city’s message to “go greener.”

Hundreds of pounds of garbage, including medical waste, have washed up on a 10-mile stretch of shoreline in Michigan. The Coast Guard doesn't know where the trash came from, but some of it apparently contains Wisconsin names and addresses. [AP]

Get ready for tonight's finale of with this sorta spoof, sorta recap.

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle signed state legislation yesterday making Wisconsin the fifth state to join the Great Lakes Basin Compact. The compact was created among eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces after a Canadian company proposed shipping water from Lake Ontario to Asia in 1999. The states and provinces reached a voluntary water deal in 2001, then spent four years negotiating language that would go into the law. The agreement bans most diversions of water from the Great Lakes Basin, and establishes procedures to mediate disputes among the states and provinces that surround the Great Lakes.

The Green Festival, the nation’s largest green living event, continues again tomorrow at Navy Pier. Healthy and green, you won’t find any elephant ears to snack on, or have to rub elbows with fat folks in this crowd. Instead, you’ll find organic snacks made with fair trade practices and vegan lasagna. There are all sorts of fashion accessories hand-crafted from hemp, or elephant dung paper, and stuff for your home like thermal shades or rooftop garden containers. It’s like a county fair, only there is no barn yard smell.

The Green Cleaning Schools Act went into effect in Illinois on May 9, making us the second state in the nation to require that schools develop "green cleaning" plans and use cleaning supplies that meet EPA standards. Great, there goes our idea to sell boiling ammonia cancer splash lunchtable cleanser in a get-rich-quick scheme. Sigh. Guess we're going to have to market bottled hippie tears. Oh, we kid.

Eco-friendly advancements are being made in building design and construction—think sustainable materials, efficiency of resources, and energy-reducing wiring and appliances. If this topic interests you, the new Smart Home: Green + Wired exhibit, opening tomorrow at the Museum of Science and Industry, is a neat opportunity to learn more about green buildings.

Wow, file under "took us long enough": By 2011, all of Chicago will have curbside blue-cart recycling. [CBS 2]

Is the Blanding's turtle slowly disappearing from the Midwest? Um...it's a turtle! It does everything slowly!

It’s with a bit of irony that the company responsible for killing the Marshall Field’s trademark green is now, itself, going green. Earlier this week, Macy’s announced they will be using recycled paper shopping bags at all its stores, as well as biodegradable packaging for online shipments -- all part of Macy’s “commitment to contribute to a more sustainable environment.”

Cook County was ranked the third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in a study funded by the US Department of Energy and NASA. The top ten, in million tons of CO2 per year:

Yeah, kind of. Back in March, a study found a cocktail of chemicals in metropolitan drinking water, but the study didn't include Chicago's supply. Well, the Trib commissioned a study of local samples, and guess what? It found trace amounts of "an anti-seizure drug, a common painkiller, caffeine and two chemicals used to make Teflon and Scotchgard."

Earth Hour officials indicate last year there were 2.2 million who participated in a one-hour effort to bring awareness to energy conservation. Yesterday, they estimated that number was around 10 million. In Chicago, the Sears Tower, the John Hancock, the Wrigley Building, and the Tribune Tower dimmed decorative lights, while 500 McDonald’s throughout Chicagoland turned off their golden arches. In the theatre district, marquees went dark, and Elphaba, the witch from "Wicked" turned out the lights with a dramatic "spell". Navy Pier’s iconic ferris wheel went dark and nearly every store on the Magnificent Mile turned out their lights.

Earth Hour, the global movement bringing awareness to power consumption that we told you about earlier this week, is only a few hours away.

The New York Times Home and Garden section (yes, we sometimes read the Home & Garden section) checked in yesterday on the West Town home of two Art Institute faculty members, Frances Whitehead and James Elniski, whose West Town home is starting to turn heads. According to the article (which is accompanied with a nice slide show), the couple has approached their home like a conceptual art project, and in so doing, they've pretty much set a new standard for sustainable urban design.

Now that saving the environment is rad, new campaigns, films, and celebrity endorsed informational websites are popping up all over the place. The latest is Unscrew America, a new campaign to get people to unscrew their regular light bulbs and replace them with LEDs and CFLs.

Mark your calendars: For one hour on March 29th, Chicago will be in the dark. The City of Chicago and COM ED are asking businesses and residents to turn off their lights and unplug all electrical devices between 8 and 9pm on Saturday, March 29th to participate in Earth Hour, a global initiative organized by the World Wildlife Fund in which cities and communities turn out their lights to symbolize their commitment to finding climate change solutions.

Surprise, surprise: Chicago will not be banning retail stores from distributing plastic bags anytime soon, but steps are being taken to institute a plastic bag recycling program. According to the Sun-Times, Alderman Ed Burke from the 14th Ward proposed a "San Francisco-style ban on non-compostable plastic bags" last May, but he was ultimately forced to compromise. Now, Burke is joining Economic Development Committee Chairman Marge Laurino from the 39th Ward in proposing a much softer ordinance that instead of banning bags creates bag recycling options.