Climate Change

Hurricane Milton is hurling tornadoes and rain at the U.S. coast on its steady, potentially catastrophic march toward Florida’s west coast

McHenry County College will host a screening of “Saving Walden’s World,” a film that explores themes of ethics, gender, sustainable societies, population, social justice and healthcare Wednesday in Crystal Lake.

Not even two weeks after Hurricane Helene swamped the Florida coastline, Milton has strengthened rapidly into a Category 5 hurricane on a path toward the state.

Is the current summer-like September an anomaly? No – but Northern Illinois may see more of them.

Summer 2024 sweltered to Earth’s hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured, European climate service Copernicus reported Friday

The Healthy Forests, Wetlands, and Prairies Act would require Illinois to establish a grant program for local governments to restore degraded forests and prairies. State Senator Rachel Ventura from Joliet sponsored the bill.

An Associated Press analysis of county tax data across three states — Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska — found wind companies rank among the biggest taxpayers in many rural communities

New safety requirements for carbon dioxide pipelines as well as a temporary ban on their construction are now in effect after Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday signed a bill that passed the General Assembly earlier this year

Used to shrugging off the heat, Las Vegas residents are now eyeing the thermometer as the desert city is on track Wednesday to set a record for the most consecutive days over 115 degrees Fahrenheit

Hundreds of Europeans touring the American West and adventurers from around the U.S. are still being drawn to Death Valley National Park, even though the desolate region known as one of the Earth’s hottest places is being punished by a dangerous heat wave

Hurricane Beryl is roaring across the Caribbean Sea as a powerful Category 4 storm on a path toward Jamaica and the Cayman Islands

Hurricane Beryl is roaring across the Caribbean Sea as a monstrous Category 5 storm on a path that would take it near Jamaica and the Cayman Islands

Hurricane Beryl began pounding the southeast Caribbean on Monday as a powerful Category 4 storm after becoming the earliest storm of that strength to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters

Earlier this week, authorities said the Rapidan Dam near Mankato faced an “imminent threat” of collapse, but later they said an abutment had partially failed

A huge train bridge has collapsed in the Sioux City, Iowa, area during flooding in the Midwest that has led to evacuations and killed at least one person

As the first heat wave of the season ripples across the U.S., summer camps are working to keep their children cool while still letting the kids enjoy being outside with nature

A new study finds that human-caused climate change dialed up the heat and drastically increased the odds of this month’s killer heat that has been baking the Southwestern United States, Mexico and Central America

Extreme heat alerts continued for tens of millions of people in the United States on Tuesday as cities including Chicago broke records at the start of a week of sweltering weather.

The Kane County Board has adopted a climate action implementation plan that recommends ways to reduce the emission of gasses that many experts believe are hurting the climate.

Extreme heat in Mexico, Central America and parts of the US South has left millions sweltering, strained energy grids and resulted in iconic Howler monkeys in Mexico dropping dead from trees

As he tries to secure his legacy, President Joe Biden has unleashed a flurry of election-year rules on the environment

While Mexico's brutal heat wave has been linked to the deaths of at least 26 people since March, veterinarians and rescuers say it has killed dozens and perhaps hundreds of howler monkeys.

A technology that some say is a key tool to address climate change and others say is a cash grab for heavy industry could face new regulations – if Illinois lawmakers can find the time before their scheduled adjournment this week

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act paved the way for companies like G&W Electric in Bolingbrook to invest in solar power projects.

State Senator Rachel Ventura led legislation through the Illinois senate this week which will create a grant program for local governments working to mitigate climate change.

Joliet Junior College will be hosting its first official Repair Cafe event on Saturday as part of its month-long recognition of Earth Day.

Illinois District 14 Representative Lauren Underwood announced $75 million in green job funding for a Plainfield manufacturing facility on Monday.

State regulators are once again considering massive electric utility spending plans that would affect the state’s climate goals – and 5.4 million electric customers’ monthly bills – after rejecting previous versions late last year.

It’s official – this past February finished as Chicago’s warmest February on record, with the average temperature ending up over 10 degrees above normal, the National Weather Service Chicago reported.

The storms that swept through northern Illinois this week showed how quickly tornadoes can pop up from intense thunderstorms and quick swings in temperature. The National Weather Service confirmed 11 tornadoes from that one storm.

The Chicago area is closing out what could be its warmest February ever, and the signs are clear: Trees are leafing out, once-dormant plants are peeking up through the ground and pollen counts are going up.

Weather patterns have shifted significantly in the past century and Illinois has dealt with both warmer temperatures and more precipitation, according to the Prairie Research Institute’s Illinois State Climatologist.

Opinion: Reduce, reuse and recycle is a wonderful summary of how we should live our lives. However, recycling is not magic and not everything can be broken down into its original materials and then made into a new product, writes Meryl Greer Domina of 350Kishwaukee.

A policy that would hold packaging producers responsible for the full life cycle of their products could triple Illinois’ recycling rate, according to a recent study from The Recycling Partnership — but there’s a long way to go to make it happen.

A long-worried nightmare scenario, triggered by Greenland’s ice sheet melting from global warming, still is at least decades away if not longer, but maybe not the centuries that it once seemed

The Biden administration is setting tougher standards for deadly soot pollution, saying that reducing fine particle matter from tailpipes, smokestacks and other industrial sources could prevent thousands of premature deaths a year.

Boston-based Nexamp, a major player in the solar energy industry, is joining the growing list of renewable technology companies that have expanded or relocated to Illinois in recent months.

The planet is warming to record levels, yet here in the Chicago area we're experiencing the same brutal cold snaps we're known for.

Opinion | There’s a new way to be part of the growing effort: Meet DeCarbon DeKalb, a communication forum that began as climate science and powerful weather events made it clear that we need to reduce CO2, writes Steve Honeywell of the DeKalb Citizens' Environmental Commission.

The U.N. weather agency says 2023 is all but certain to be the hottest year on record, and warning of worrying trends that suggest increasing floods, wildfires, glacier melt, and heat waves in the future

Amid record-high temperatures, deluges, droughts and wildfires, leaders are convening for another round of United Nations climate talks later this month that seek to curb a centuries-long trend of humans spewing ever more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Revved-up climate change now permeates Americans’ daily lives with harm that is “already far-reaching and worsening across every region of the United States,” a massive new government report says. In the Midwest, both extreme drought and flooding threaten crops.

The Joliet corridor is a “a huge area for air pollution,” experts said at a recent climate change and environmental justice program held at Lewis University. Increased truck traffic having impact on environmental health.

Republicans are split: 49% say climate change is happening, but 26% say it’s not and an additional 25% are unsure. Overall, 74% of Americans say climate change is happening, largely unchanged from April.

A group of about a dozen people staged a demonstration in downtown DeKalb Saturday to promote a more sustainable future without fossil fuels. The rally will continue at 2 p.m. Sunday at First Street and Lincoln Highway.

Illinois’ rate increases are in line with those in other Midwest states such as Iowa and Kansas

Thomas Edison’s pioneering incandescent light bulb, which cast illumination by heating a filament until it glowed, is fading into history

With a summer of extreme weather records dominating the news, meteorologists and scientists say records like these give a glimpse of the big picture: a warming planet caused by climate change.

The man who became one of the architects of the state’s landmark energy reform policy – known as the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act – will be a key player in implementing the law he helped create.

"I don't know a single city that is truly prepared for the worst-case scenario that some climate scientists fear," said Eric Klinenberg, a professor of social sciences at New York University who wrote a book about the Chicago heat wave.