Lincoln Park Zoo's ancient bur oak, seen in fall 2022. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

Crews are scheduled to begin removal of the ancient bur oak on May 1. The zoo is planning Arbor Day events on April 28 to give the tree a celebratory farewell.

(Tama66 / Pixabay)

According to a new survey, there’s been a shift in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are the primary driver of climate change as opposed to natural changes in the environment.

Women push wheelbarrows atop a coal mine dump at the coal-powered Duvha power station, near Emalahleni east of Johannesburg, Nov. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell, File)

Humanity still has a chance, close to the last, to prevent the worst of climate change’s future harms, a top United Nations panel of scientists said Monday.

(Living Carbon)

A San Francisco-based tech startup has announced the launch of the latest tool in the fight to stave off the worst of climate change: genetically modified trees.

A robot nicknamed Icefin operates under the sea ice near McMurdo Station in Antarctica in 2020. The pencil-shaped robot is giving scientists their first look at the forces eating away at the Thwaites glacier. (Schmidt / Lawrence / Icefin/ NASA PSTAR RISE UP via AP)

Using a 13-foot pencil-shaped robot that swam under the grounding line where ice first juts over the sea, scientists saw a shimmery critical point in Thwaites’ chaotic breakup, “where it’s melting so quickly there, there’s just material streaming out of the glacier.”

Bison are the largest land mammal in North America. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Midwest Region)

New research shows bison are altering the landscape in unexpected ways when reintroduced to Midwest prairie ecosystems. 

(Pixabay)

Headlines spun out of control when it came to new research results on the Earth’s core. In other news, narwhals have had it with noisy neighbors.

President Joe Biden drives a Cadillac Lyriq through the showroom during a tour at the Detroit Auto Show, Sept. 14, 2022, in Detroit. Biden persuaded Democrats in Congress to provide hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
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It’s a public relations challenge that could determine whether the country meets President Joe Biden’s ambitious goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

An electric vehicle charges at an EVgo fast charging station in Detroit, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. (AP Photo / Paul Sancya)

 Starting Jan. 1, many Americans will qualify for a tax credit of up to $7,500 for buying an electric vehicle. But a complex web of requirements, including where vehicles and batteries must be manufactured to qualify, is casting doubt on whether anyone can receive the full credit next year.

Zebra shark. (Brenna Hernandez / Shedd Aquarium)

From industrious sharks to the bird of the year, here’s what caught our attention this week on the climate and nature beat.

Chicago's new Climate Infrastructure Fund will support projects like the installation of renewable energy systems. (Los Muertos Crew / Pexels)
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The fund will award grants in amounts ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 for projects, including energy efficiency upgrades, green infrastructure or the purchase of electric vehicles.

(CNN)

As the price of natural gas rises, it’s prompting some consumer and environmental advocates to call for homes to go all-electric.

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, joined at right by Arati Prabhakar, the president’s science adviser, announces a major scientific breakthrough in fusion research that was made at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, during a news conference at the Department of Energy in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced a “major scientific breakthrough” Tuesday in the decadeslong quest to harness fusion, the energy that powers the sun and stars.

Hegewisch Marsh, seen from South Torrence Avenue. (Google)

The federal government has just announced its most significant investment to date in nature-based projects aimed at creating "climate-ready" coastlines, and Chicago is among the communities that will benefit from this latest round of funding.

(BLazarus / Pixabay)

It’s been another wild week on the nature beat. The United Nations’ biodiversity conference kicked off Tuesday in Montreal with the UN Secretary-General calling humanity a “weapon of mass extinction.” Nowhere to go but up from there.

Aerial image of the distal end of a lava flow from Mauna Loa's Northeast Rift Zone the morning of Nov. 30, 2022. (USGS / K. Mulliken)

Every Friday, we’ll be rounding up some of the articles, videos, photos and social media posts that have caught our attention on the topics of climate change, the environment, wildlife, conservation and weather.