Chicago was a hub for environmental activism on the first Earth Day, and it remains a pioneer today.

We discuss the history of Earth Day and the environmental challenges the planet is facing today with Denis Hayes, the organizer of the very first event in 1970, and local environmental activist Kim Wasserman.

Environmental organizations have had to scale back plans for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Get ready for lots of livestreams and calls for digital action this week. Here’s a sampling of what’s on offer.

In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, we’re going to have to clean up the planet individually. Creative ideas from the Earth Day Network include “plogging” and #TrashTag.

Lawyers began presenting evidence Thursday as the Illinois Commerce Commission weighs a petition to double the throughput of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, which runs through the state.

Remember those endangered piping plovers that captured Chicagoans’ hearts? They’re back — as the stars of the documentary “Monty and Rose,” screening this month during the One Earth Film Festival.

Small actions can add up to meaningful change in the race to avert a climate crisis. But Chicago is lagging when it comes to some of the simplest solutions.

For generations, a small family business has relied on predictable weather patterns to produce thousands of gallons of maple syrup each year. But climate change is now threatening the industry – and filling the family with uncertainty about the future.

Humans are great problem-solvers, but climate change doesn’t feel urgent enough, say behavioral scientists. They’re trying to figure out how to change that.

JP Morgan Chase announced this week it will throw its financial weight behind the transition to a “low-carbon economy,” but environmental activists say that doesn’t make up for the damage the firm’s lending practices have already wrought on the planet.

The daughter of former Vice President Al Gore is founder of the Center for Earth Ethics, which frames the environmental crisis in moral terms. She tells us about her work ahead of her appearance this week at a climate change forum in Chicago.

City Council approved a climate emergency resolution Wednesday, but no specific actions are on the horizon.

The latest selection for the citywide reading program is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book from New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert, who joins us in discussion.

In the war against plastic pollution, Illinois legislators just announced a new battle plan that would tackle the problem from multiple angles.

The world’s richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, said in an Instagram post that he’ll start giving grants this summer to scientists, activists and nonprofits working to protect Earth.

Sen. Dick Durbin and Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a joint news conference Friday to call for federal funding to manage and protect the region’s vulnerable shoreline.