By Suzanne Hanney

Streetwise 

"Austin has one of the highest levels of lead in the city," said Patrick MacRoy, program director at the Chicago Department of Public Health Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.  The toxic effects of lead poisoning are well-established but there is help for area residents to combat the problem.    

By Keri Lynch
Potentially toxic chemicals are entering our bodies from every day items such as tin cans, water bottles, shower curtains, electronics, sofa cushions and other textiles. These are the surprising results of a biomonitoring project released last week that found all three types of industrial chemicals being studied in participants from seven states, including Illinois.

 Environmental organizations and health professionals tested participants’ hair, blood and urine samples for evidence of the chemicals. They released the report, Is It In Us?: Chemical Contamination in our Bodies, which included test results and recommendations for fixing what they called a "broken chemical safety system.”

By Emily Slusher

Chicago's Blue Cart recycling program has improved recycling rates in the seven wards that rolled it out so far. And a four-year state commitment will expand the program that replaces the city's beleaguered "blue bags."

An $8 million grant from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) will soon give more Chicagoans a chance to do more recycling, following the lead of the 1st, 5th, 8th, 19th, 37th 46th and 47th wards.

By Community Media Workshop

Nobel Laureate to Dedicate School Garden

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, founder of Kenya's Green Belt Movement, will preside over a ceremony for a new garden named in her honor at the Al Raby High School for Community and Environment, 3545 W. Fulton Blvd., at 6 p.m. Sat., Sept. 22.

The school itself, Al Raby High, is named for the Chicago civil rights leader and teacher who worked with Martin Luther King and later directed the Peace Corps in Ghana. The school teaches students to tackle social justice and environmental issues and uses community activism to inspire students personally and academically.

By Keri Lynch

Beaches around the world received a makeover over the weekend as volunteers gathered with gloves and garbage bags to clean up trash and debris.

Besides cleaning up items that could pollute or harm wildlife, organizers of the annual event hope to inspire people to stay involved in their local waterways.

On Chicago's North Side, about 200 people signed up to lend a hand at Montrose Beach, including teachers and students from several area high schools, families with children of all ages and members of local environmental groups, such as Sierra Club and the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
Photo by Lloyd DeGrane

By Community Media Workshop

With 50 percent of in-town trips made in single-occupancy automobiles, Chicagoans could do much to reduce the city's carbon footprint by changing their own individual behavior, according to a new report.

And while city policies - that have created 350 miles of bikeways and 10,000 bicycle racks - have increased opportunities to convert car trips to bike trips, much more could be done to reduce transportation-related carbon emissions, said Rob Sadowsky, executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

The bicycle federation is one of four urban transportation groups across the country that released the Urban Transportation Report Card last month.

By Keri Lynch

BP America's plans to dump more pollutants into the Great Lakes resulted in an unprecedented gathering of environmentalists, a company executive and public officials from several states and levels of government in Chicago this week.

They faced a "virtual firestorm of concern" over a new permit that allows BP to discharge increased levels of ammonia and sludge into Lake Michigan from its Whiting, Ind., oil refinery, said a top federal environmental official who convened the summit.

"As the agency with the ultimate responsibility for protecting the Great Lakes, we feel it is time to get beyond these headlines and the emotions, no matter how justified, and begin a more practical discussion," said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Mary Gade

BP has a valid permit for the wastewater discharge, Gade said, and she stands by the agency's decision to issue it.

Imagine: You bike to Grant Park, where a valet takes care of your cycle. You settle down under the stars on your blanket with friends as the sun goes down, providing a water-color fadeout to night. Then, a solar and biodiesel powered projector begins to show Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" on the big screen with excellent sound.

A dream? No, and it is free, on Aug. 22, 2007 (get details), brought to town by the Illinois Science Council and Chicago Department of Environment, with help from Natural Source Energy Systems.

The screening part of the ongoing conversation about what scientists can teach us about our planet.  This documentary film, featuring former Vice President Al Gore, came through Chicago theaters briefly in mid-2006.  Since then, it has achieved international fame, winning numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Documentary. It explains the science behind global warming in an accessible and compelling manner.  

By Keri Lynch
Photo credits: City of Chicago-Department of Environment

More than 20,000 plants and countless birds and bees live 11 stories above the busy city streets and sidewalks of Downtown Chicago. About 150 varieties of hearty and mostly native flowers, grasses and vines grow on this rooftop garden most residents have never seen. But the garden's green impact is beginning to spread well beyond the Loop.

Funded through a $1.5 million settlement with Com Ed, the 20,300-square-foot City Hall rooftop garden is both a showcase and a pilot project for Mayor Daley's efforts to encourage green building and design. Since its completion in 2001, the number of green roofs continues to grow.

By Jennet Posey

Residents of the South Chicago neighborhood may be suffering from the effects of diesel pollution, prompting some local groups to press the Illinois General Assembly to take action.

Illinois Campaign to Clean up Diesel Pollution, Centro Comunitario Juan Diego, Southeast Environmental Task Force and Healthy Southeast Chicago want Southside residents to pressure state lawmakers to pass a clean air bill, SB0268. The legislation would provide funding to reduce pollution in the environment.

The problem of diesel pollution begins with the exhaust created by trucks, buses and construction equipment. This exhaust has been known to cause a variety of diseases, including lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, heart attacks and strokes.