Climate Crisis 101: Where the World Stands Now & the Effects of Climate Change on Illinois

In This Issue

• 350 Chicago Adds New Board Members

• Save the Date: March Speaker Series Event

• Chicago’s One Earth Film Festival

• February Speaker Series Event

• City of Chicago Sues Big Oil

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In Brief

350 Chicago Adds New Board Members

350 Chicago has added five new members to their board of directors: Maddie Young, Aana Shenai, Whitney Paige Richardson, Joshua Horwitz, and Jeff Green. They bring a wide mix of skills and expertise to the board, and are looking to help 350 Chicago expand its reach in 2024. They join existing board members Larry Coble, Rich Foss, and Kaitlin Cordes.

March Speaker Series: Carbon Capture in Illinois

Save the date for March 14th at 7:00pm for the March entry in our 350 Chicago Speaker Series. We will host two speakers, Pam Richart, Co-Director of Eco Justice Collaborative, and Jenny Cassel, Senior Attorney with Earthjustice's Clean Energy Program, who will speak on carbon capture issues currently at issue in Illinois.

One Earth Film Festival

Chicago’s One Earth Collective is putting on its 2024 film festival from April 17-April 23rd. More information on their website here.

Climate Crisis 101

The next event in the 350 Chicago Speaker Series, Climate Crisis 101 by Dr. Trent Ford, will be this Tuesday, February 27th, at 6:30pm. He will provide some facts regarding the climate crisis, discuss the world’s efforts to halt global warming, and how this will impact Illinois. This should be a great event for anyone wanting to learn more about the climate crisis and the science behind it.

Zoom link to register is here.

Dr. Trent Ford has been the Illinois State Climatologist since 2019. Trent is an expert in climate and climate change and its interactions and impacts, especially as they relate to water. Trent leads climate monitoring and data collection and provision for the state of Illinois. He and his team provide information online, through traditional and social media, and by speaking to interested groups across the state.

The Illinois State Climatologist provides weather and climate data, maps, and information for Illinois farmers, government agencies and policymakers, and all citizens. The State Climatologist also conducts research on past climate events, monitors current conditions, and studies possible future climate change and acts as the state’s authoritative spokesperson on climate science. By state statute, this position is based at the Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois.

More info on the Illinois State Climatologist role here.

The City of Chicago Sues Big Oil

by Joshua Horwitz

The city of Chicago is suing five of the largest oil companies as well as the American Petroleum Institute (which 350 Chicago protested last November), accusing them of harm to city both due to their actions to accelerate the climate crisis, as well as accusations that these companies deceived the public through their efforts to deny the science behind climate change. The city said in their lawsuit that, “The climate change impacts that Chicago has faced and will continue to face — including more frequent and intense storms, flooding, droughts, extreme heat events and shoreline erosion — are felt throughout every part of the city and disproportionately in low-income communities.”

The city is joining other cities and states, such as California, New Jersey, Baltimore, the city of New York, and dozens of others who have launched similar lawsuits. More information on the growing list of lawsuits can be found at the Center for Climate Integrity. These cases help provide some essential accountability for companies who have profited by their contributions to the crisis. While the US legal system is not a perfect vehicle for resolving matters with global-scale consequences, the fact is that states and cities such as Chicago have spent billions dealing with the consequences of climate change already, a situation that these companies have profited billions from. Additionally these companies have spent significant resources to defraud the public to prevent them from even understanding the basic facts about what is happening to our planet and why. So these lawsuits serve an important function to help re-balance the scales and let oil companies, the API, and other polluters know that the public is watching.

Learn more from the Chicago Sun-Times and the Guardian.

Additionally if you want to undo the misinformation sent out by these oil companies and the API, come listen to the Trent Ford talk above or check out our YouTube channel for more speakers we have hosted in the past.