environment science + tips

Itching for more knowledge on the world that surrounds us? You’ve come to the right place for science and tips on all things straight-up environment, from climate to water to wetlands. Go ahead, get smarter.

climate science + tips

hot snow science

Ode to snow: we love it, we love it, we need more of it.
Ode to snow: we love it, we love it, we need more of it.

cool snow tips

  • Global Warming Myth: It Don’t Mean a Thing to…Freshwater Fish
  • Myth: Lake Michigan Is So Big That Chicago Can’t Run Out of Water
  • Myth: Road and Sidewalk Salt Is Natural and Just Disappears

hot trees and climate change science

Reason #57 climate change sucks: Its lousy impact on trees.

Reason #57 climate change sucks: Its lousy impact on trees.

cool trees and climate change tips

**Hint: for information on how climate change is affecting wildlife, please go to our Animal Science + Tips page.

water science + tips

hot water supply/drought science

Myth: We can get more water elsewhere. Reality: We wish...

Myth: One drought-stricken city can get water from another. Reality: We wish…

cool water supply/drought tips

hot DIY water management science

You don’t need to be a rain surgeon to maximize water!

cool DIY water management tips

  • Buying a Rain Barrel with the MWRD
  • Make Your Own Rain Barrel with tips from the City of Chicago
  • Rain Barrel FAQs from the MMSD
  • Rain Garden info from the MMSD
  • Rain Garden info from the Chicago Botanic Garden

wetlands science + tips

hot wetlands science

What wetlands are: awesome. What they aren't: the reason your flooded...

What wetlands are: awesome. What they aren’t: the reason your basement flooded…
  • An Ecological Solution to the Flood Damage Problem [PDF], Donald Hey, Jill Kostel, and Deanna Montgomery, Saint Louis University, 2009
  • Drainage: The Pros, the Cons, and the Future [PDF], Donald Hey, Hydrological Science and Technology, American Institute of Hydrology, 2002
  • Coastal Flooding and Wetland Loss in the 21st Century, Robert Nicholls, Global Environmental Change, 2004
  • Wetlands, WJ Mitsch and JG Gosselink, John Wiley & Sons, 2007The Essential Environment: The Science Behind the Stories, JH Withgott and S. Brennan., Pearson/Benjamin Cummings Press, 2009
  • Reducing nitrogen loading to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin: Strategies to counter a persistent ecological problem,” WJ Mitsch, BioScience, 2001

cool wetlands tips

Waterways in Chicagoland science + tips

hot chicago river science

Repeat after us: it's NOT toilet water!

Repeat after us: it’s NOT toilet water!

cool chicago river tips

The mission to clean up the Chicago River must continue!

The mission to clean up the Chicago River must continue!

hot lake michigan science

  • Summer E-Coli Patterns and Patterns Along 23 Chicago Beaches, RL Whitman and MB Nevers, Environmental Science and Technology, 2008
  • Foreshore Sand as a Source of Escherichia coli in Nearshore Water of Lake Michigan Beach, RL Whitman and MB Nevers, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2008
  • Effects of the Nuisance Algae, Cladophora, on Escherichia coli at Recreational Beaches in Wisconsin, ET Englebert, C. McDermott, and GT Kleinheinz, Science of The Total Environment, 2008

cool lake michigan tips