Mayors Showcase Green Cities

An article on CNN.com today mentions Chicago and its efforts to combat global warming:

Chicago's Richard M. Daley was one of 45 mayors who swapped ideas on global warming.

Richard M. Daley of Chicago gave other mayors a how-to session on absorbing combustion emissions with extensive gardens throughout his city -- from the ground to the rooftops.

"When a city is designed for the environment, it looks better. It feels better," Daley said.

Big box stores in Chicago are required to have "green roofs" covered by low-growing plants that help lower energy needed for heating and cooling, Daley said. The city also has a shower-equipped bicycle station, plans to install solar-thermal collectors atop city buildings, and a large fleet of hybrid and natural gas-powered vehicles.

Technology

We hope to build a vibrant interacting group of scientifically attentive citizens to participate in the forums. We plan to make heavy use of technology to enable communication between forum members. We plan to utilize a WIKI, Blog Rings, RSS feeds, Podcasts and more.

Welcome

I've started this blog to record progress in the creation of a series of Earth Science forums on Global Climate Change here in Chicago. The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum has recieved a grant from NASA to put on these forums on which I was the principal investigator. The idea of these forums is to bring together interested citizens together with researchers to help grow understanding of the scientific issues behind an important public poilicy issue.