In December, we hosted the first-ever Chicago Community Climate Forum. This event, which took place on the eve of the North American Climate Summit, brought together nearly 1,500 community members and 70 organizations under one roof—an encouraging sign of Chicago’s commitment to take action against climate change. Read more about No Napkin Left Behind: Why Zero Waste Matters
Images: Sean Sherman by Rina Oh for the James Beard Foundation; corn cobs from Cottonwood Canyon, Utah, in the Museum's collection.
By Monica Rickert-Bolter, volunteer for the North American Anthropology Program
People are growing more concerned with what they put into their bodies, and it’s not just because they’re trying to keep the pounds off. Americans constantly debate which foods should be restricted and which are acceptable to consume to remain healthy. Read more about The Sioux Chef: Reinvigorating Indigenous Food Systems
Perhaps you’ve noticed the blue recycling carts around The Field Museum, the customized recycling bins in the Field Bistro, Explorer Café and the Siragusa Center, and if you are here on Members' Nights, a variety of other recycling containers in the halls behind the scenes. If so, we hope you’ve found them easy to use! The Field Museum diverted 53% of its waste from landfills in 2016, with 31 tons of that amount being captured in the blue carts. Read more about Recycling at The Field Museum
This post was written by Iza Redlinski, a Conservation Ecologist in the Keller Science Action Center. She participated in this recent prairie burn.
You may not think of winter as a time to prepare for spring flowers, but our ecologists are working hard to hopefully see some native plants emerge in a few months! Read more about Restoring Plants With Fire in Calumet
Cyclists Yana Melamed and Vyacheslav (Slav) Stoyanov, who hail from Bulgaria, will call North and South America home for the next two years as they make an exceptional journey from Alaska to Argentina. Slav originally conceptualized their campaign, Cycle 4 Recycle, to highlight the impact humans have on the Earth. The pair will travel 60,000-kilometers (38,000 miles) by bicycle through 26 countries in (they hope) 731 days. On their way, they will experience climates ranging from the bitter cold of the mountains to the damp heat of the rainforests. Read more about From Alaska to Argentina: ReCycling through the Americas
You know that part in Game of Thrones where the dragon eggs hatch when they’re put in fire? This is like that, but with a super-endangered flower.
Illinois’s only native wildflower, the Kankakee mallow, has been missing from this state for years—it was presumed extinct in its native habitat. But this year, Field Museum scientists and volunteers from the Friends of Langham Island group were able to bring it back. Their secret? Setting fire to the ground where the plants once lived. Read more about Born from the Ashes