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Climate Change in the Windy City and the World

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Climate Change in the Windy City and the World CHICAGO COMMUNITY CLIMATE ACTION TOOLKIT CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE WINDY CITY AND THE WORLD A TOOL FOR UNDERSTANDING CLIMATE SCIENCE IN THE CHICAGO REGION Find this and other climate action tools at Environment Culture and Conservation climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org A Division of Science INTRODUCTION Research conducted by The Field This booklet provides Chicago Museum from 2008 to 2011 shows that leaders and residents with a basic Chicago residents generally think understanding of climate climate change is real and is an change as it relates to our important issue that needs to be addressed. region, so they can take action informed by scientific, global, and local But… they often don’t understand how it knowledge. relates to their lives or what they can do about it. WEST RIDGE FOREST GLEN MILWAUKEE CORRIDOR This booklet is informed by studies conducted by Field Museum anthropologists in PILSEN seven communities BRONZEVILLE throughout Chicago (see map). The studies NORTH KENWOOD- were commissioned OAKLAND by the Chicago Department of RESEARCH Environment to engage diverse COMMUNITIES SOUTH CHICAGO communities in the Chicago Climate Action Plan. Visit ROSELAND http://fieldmuseum. org/climateaction to download reports. ECCo • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 1 INTRODUCTION This booklet also presents best practices The examples in this booklet also in climate action from the Chicago show the power of building on region, from The Field Museum’s communities’ strengths—such research. They demonstrate the diverse as DIY skills, frugality, conserving water, and creative ways in which and growing food—to implement broad communities are responding to climate action strategies in climate change. locally meaningful ways that will encourage widespread participation. The Field Museum’s Approach to Climate Action The Field Museum helps community organizations execute a three-pronged CHICAGO CLIMATE approach to climate CLIMATE ACTION action that links ACTION PLAN PLAN FOR community strengths NATURE with the strategies of the region’s climate COMMUNITY- action plans. The LED CLIMATE resulting projects address both climate ACTION change and other community issues. COMMUNITY STRENGTHS ECCo • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 2 KEY Even if you don’t memorize all 3. Climate change affects different regions TakEawaY the science, we hope you’ll remember in different ways and is already these key ideas: impacting Chicago. POINTS 4. People everywhere are finding ways 1. The world’s scientists overwhelmingly to live that will stop climate change agree that climate change from getting worse and help is happening and is caused by their communities adapt to the human activities. changes that are inevitable. 2. People in the Chicago region are also 5. “Climate action” will not only address concerned about climate change and climate change, but will make our want to understand more about how it communities better places to relates to Chicago and their live. lives. ECCo • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 3 What’S THE Weather is short–term changes Climate is the average long–term weather DIFFERENCE in the atmosphere: what we experience day– pattern of a specific location: how the to day. atmosphere behaves over many, many BETWEEN years. WEATHER AND CLIMATE? MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY ECCo • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 4 WHAT IS Climate change refers to changing Global warming is the rise in the CLIMATE patterns of temperature, precipitation, Earth’s average temperature. CHANGE humidity, wind and ocean circulation, and other variables over long periods of It is caused by an increase in the amount AND WHAT time. of greenhouse gases in the DOES IT atmosphere, which trap heat. HAVE TO Climate change today is caused by DO WITH human activity such as burning fossil fuels, like coal, petroleum, and GLOBAL natural gas. WARMING? Components Of Climate Change WIND CIRCULATION GLOBAL OCEAN WARMING CIRCULATION TEMPERATURE = (rise in temperature) CHANGE causes other components of climate to change HUMIDITY OTHER VARIABLES ECCo • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 5 WHAT DOES People sometimes confuse ozone layer.” Since the 1970s, international CLIMATE today’s climate change crisis with the efforts have successfully reduced the amount problems that we faced with the ozone of ozone-depleting aerosols through CHANGE layer in the 1970s. In fact they are related legislation that banned the use of the HAVE TO but different challenges. chemicals that caused the problem. DO WITH Ground-level ozone in the lower OZONE? Ozone in the upper atmosphere blocks atmosphere is a greenhouse gas UV-B radiation emitted by the sun from (GHG), like CO . Burning fossil fuels creates entering our atmosphere. This is important 2 pollutants that become ozone because high levels of UV-B radiation can when they react with heat and sunlight. cause severe skin damage, including skin Ozone is the primary component of smog, cancer. Human-made aerosols depleted and a contributor to climate change. some of this ozone, creating the “hole in the R ATMOSPH UPPE ERE 90% of ozone is in the STRATOSPHERE GOOD ozone in the stratosphere (O ) OZONE 3 BAD ATMOS AEROSOL LOWER PHERE ozone in the EMISSIONS 10% of ozone is in the troposphere TROPOSPHERE Ground-level ozone is a GHG and a major FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS component of smog EARTH ECCo • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 6 HOW DO Scientists throughout the world happening in the Arctic: loss of ice cover WE KNOW have conducted thousands of studies on and the danger this poses for polar bears. climate change. They also tend to associate climate change CLIMATE with dramatic weather events They overwhelmingly agree that climate CHANGE around the country and the world—including, change is happening and our Earth is IS REaL? for immigrant residents, in their home warming, due mainly to human countries. activities that burn fossil fuels. Residents are also noticing the effects of In Chicago residents generally climate change in Chicago, such as believe that climate change is real in part stronger storms, hotter summers, because of what they know about changes and even acorns falling earlier from trees. FACT: 97 out of 100 scientists who study climate conclude that climate change today is largely caused by human activity. www.skepticalscience.com In February 2011, a Chicago blizzard stranded Lake Shore Drive commuters overnight. Global warming increases moisture in our atmosphere, resulting in extreme storms like Photo courtesy of Carrie Porter this one. ECCo • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 7 HOW DOES We burn fossil fuels when we do GHGs are also produced by many natural HUMAN things like drive, heat our homes, dispose sources such as forests and oceans. This is aCTIVITY of waste, and process food. Burning fossil called the “natural greenhouse effect.” But it fuels produces greenhouse gases is the additional amount of human-produced CAUSE (GHGs), the most significant being carbon GHGs, which produce the “enhanced CLIMATE dioxide (CO2). GHGs trap heat in human greenhouse effect,” CHANGE? the Earth’s atmosphere. that is causing the climate to change too quickly today. Some solar radiation With more CO2 in our is reflected back into atmosphere, less heat space. is able to escape. SOLAR CO2 HEATING CO2 About half the solar radiation is absorbed GHGs by the Earth’s surface GHGs and warms it. NATURAL GREENHOUSE EFFECT ENHANCED HUMAN GHGs absorb infrared (or heat) radiation emitted by GREENHOUSE EFFECT the Earth, trapping heat in the atmosphere and Carbon dioxide (CO2) is produced by burning fossil keeping the Earth almost 60°F warmer than it would fuels. CO2 traps additional heat inside the atmosphere, be otherwise. raising the Earth’s temperature above what it would adapted from the Chicago Climate action Plan normally be. ECCo • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 8 HOW DOES People often do not realize that the through commercial and residential retrofits HUMAN major cause of climate change is (tightening up buildings so less energy the use of energy produced by burning leaks out). aCTIVITY In fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, natural CHICAGO gas). as shown below, energy use makes up CAUSE 61% of greenhouse gas (GHG) CLIMATE This is why many national and local emissions in the Chicago region. CHANGE? initiatives aimed at curbing climate change currently focus on reducing In the city of Chicago, it energy consumption, largely makes up 70%. 2000 GREENHOUSE 2000 GREENHOUSE FACT: GAS EMISSIONS OF GAS EMISSIONS The U.S. has more THE SIX–COUNTY OF THE CITY OF CO2 emissions per CHICAGO METRO CHICAGO person than any AREA—COOK, WILL, other country except DUPAGE, KANE, Australia. MCHENRY, AND AUSTRALIA LAKE COUNTIES UNITED STATES CANADA SAUDI ARABIA RUSSIA SOUTH KOREA MEXICO 0 5 10 15 20 2008 CO2 EMISSIONS PER PERSON Courtesy of City of Chicago Data courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy ECCo • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 9 HASN’T THE Yes , the climate has always been changing, Chicago is like many other industrial CLIMATE but the current warming trend is cities when it comes to the causes of different because: climate change. In the early 1900s, Chicago aLWAYS was booming. It was the beginning of the BEEN • It is largely caused by human Century of Progress. CHANGING? activities. But some progress comes at • CO2 levels are the highest a price: intensifying levels of CO2 they have been in over 800,000 accelerated climate change. years. • The rate of increase is unprecedented. FACTS: Levels of CO2 have risen 25% in the last century. CARBON DIOXIDE in ppm (parts per million) 295 ppm 385 ppm 1900 2007 Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy Many scientists say we need our CO2 levels back below 350 ppm this century to avoid Photo public domain irreversible impacts. ECCo • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 10 WHY ARE Natural sources like plants, animals, Sinks include oceans, lakes, forests, and oceans, and soils have always released other green spaces. They keep the amount CO2 LEVELS more carbon into the atmosphere than of CO in the atmosphere in check.
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