On the same streets in the Windy City, where a young liberal Democratic activist named Francis Peabody peddled "smoke-free clean coal" in the 1890s, an estimated 400 Chicago residents marched to the infamous Fisk Generating Station coal-fired plant for the Chicago 350 Climate Action last week.

Eight activists were arrested for blockading Cermak Road, in front of the entrance to the coal-fired plant.

Here's a film clip from the action by the wonderful Topless America project in Chicago:

According to a 2006 Sierra Club report:

In 2000, a team of researchers from Harvard University estimated that Fisk and the five other coal-fired plants, plus three more elsewhere in Illinois, together cause 300 deaths and 14,000 asthma attacks each year. If the plants were forced to abide by the Clean Air Act's pollution standards, the researchers found, two-thirds of those deaths and asthma attacks could be avoided.

The Chicago activists also called attention to the deadly life cycle of coal mining and coal burning -- including the burning of coal stripmined from mountaintop removal operations in Appalachia. As the great Appalachian writer Harry Caudill wrote in his classic, Night Comes to the Cumberlands, "the rape of Appalachia got its practice in Illinois," where commercial stripmining was first launched in the 1850s.

Today, strip mining continues in southern Illinois, while devastating longwall mining has undermined thousands of acres of fertile farmland. For more information on longwalling in the heartland, visit: Illinois citizens opposed to longwall mining.

For more information on closing the dirty coal-fired plants in Chicago, and their reliance on deadly coal mining, see:How Green is Chicago.

Once the "world's largest coal market," Chicago has had a long history of peddling coal and coal-fired plants to the world. As Jeff Goodell pointed out in his book Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future, after 22 million fairgoers at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 "got a glimpse of the futuristic all-dream electric Dream City, electricity became an instant icon. In cities across America, from Akron to San Francisco, local citizens banded together to bring electric lights to their Main Streets."

In 1892, however, the Chicago Daily Tribune already recognized the limits of coal. "How long can the earth sustain life," an editorial in the Chicago Daily Tribune asked, if we depend on the "wonderful power of coal?" The Chicago editorial lambasted Americans for our lack of vision and sense of energy conservation, and our need to "invent appliances to exhaust with over greater rapidity the hoard of coal." The article declared: "Doubtless the end of the coal, at least as an article of a mighty commerce, will arrive within a period brief in comparison with the ages of human existence. In the history of humanity, from first to last, the few centuries through which we are now passing will stand out prominently as the coal-burning period."

A century later, let's hope the end of the coal-burning period is not far away.

Related Links:

Prologue to Copenhagen

Vinod Khosla Nonesense

Ask Umbra on ditching dirty things

EPA chief Lisa Jackson will be in the Windy City on Friday to deliver the keynote address to the Chicago Summit on Sport and Sustainability. A review of the summit's agenda and list of speakers suggests the event will be narrowly tailored to efforts that city is undertaking in its bid for the 2016 Olympics. With that said, there also will be representatives from the National Football League (Philadelphia Eagles) who may speak to the efforts underway in professional sports on achieving sustainable practices.

As I mentioned in my first article, the professional sports industry is just beginning to embrace sustainable business practices. But they are late to the party, as the Olympic movement has been at the forefront of applying environmentally sustainable practices for some time. In fact, you can trace simple sustainability practices back to efforts applied during the 1984 summer games in Los Angeles.

Green and sustainability are already baked into plans for the next two games. The city of Vancouver's promise to host the first sustainable Olympic games ever almost certainly helped the Canadian city's bid for the 2010 winter games (PDF). Not to be out done, London, the site of the 2012 summer Olympics, unveiled its own sustainability plan back in 2007.

It's clear that if you want the Olympics in your city, you had better commit to environmentally sustainable operations. Wouldn't it be interesting if, here in the United States, the same requirements were placed on both college and professional sports programs by the cities they operate in or represent?

But I digress. In Chicago on Friday, Jackson has an opportunity to not only commend the work that is being done by the sports community but also provide some needed industry motivation. It is also a perfect stage for Jackson to point out how existing regulations touch the sport community, and how sports practices will not be unaffected by new regulatory programs (greenhouse gas emissions) that are likely to come into effect in the not too distant future.

So, as the industry itself moves ahead with sustainability programs, and as government regulators set their sights on sports practices, it should come as no surprise if Jackson's "motivation" eventually comes in the form of a Federal Advisory Committee to help guide the sporting industry as it begins the transformation to a sustainable industry.

I look forward to Jackson's speech and will be writing tomorrow on the highlights.

Related Links:

Top 25 reasons to give a damn about climate change

Can EPA regulations on CO2 be blocked?

The big stories out of Tuesday’s Senate hearing on Kerry-Boxer

Seattle is the most sustainable big city in the nation, according to a list compiled by Smarter Cities, an NRDC project that looks at the progress American cities are making toward going green. Not surprisingly, San Francisco and Portland are the runners-up.

Using data from the EPA and the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as some voluntary survey responses from city governments, the project identified the top 15 large, medium, and small cities according to 10 different environmental criteria, from air quality to recycling to transportation.

Here's a look the top 15 large cities (population of 250,000 or more):

It's hard not to be environmentally minded in a city with views like this.Photo: Simonds1. Seattle
The Emerald City gets props for its brand-new light rail system, reliance on hydroelectricity (and the resulting good air quality), Mayor Greg Nickels' U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Agreement, and two global warming initiatives: Seattle Climate Action Now and Seattle Climate Partnership. Seattleites are described as "highly educated and environmentally minded." Think it's just a coincidence that Grist is headquartered here?

San Francisco is one of the most densely populated cities in the country.Photo: ATIS5472. San Francisco
San Francisco's dense population, walkability, plastic-bag ban, city-created carbon offset fund, solar power program, and booming local food movement propelled it to the No. 2 spot. (Read more about Mayor Gavin Newsom's green efforts.)

Portland has always been a leader in big-city sustainability.Photo: Ben Amstutz3. Portland
Seattle's neighbor to the south got its light rail up and running more than 20 years ago, and the city has always been ahead of the curve on controlling urban sprawl and suppressing greenhouse-gas emissions. Portland's residents also recycle more than half their waste.

Oakland is making a green comeback.Photo: satanslaundromat4. Oakland, Calif.
This once-struggling city has a Green Jobs Corps, a New Urbanist 10K Downtown Housing Initiative, a Zero Waste Plan, and a growing local food movement (as urban farmer Novella Carpenter explains). It also gets 17 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. Sounds like there is a there there.

How green was my Silicon Valley?Photo: the_tahoe_guy5. San Jose, Calif.
Always on the cutting edge of the high-tech world, this capital of Silicon Valley is fast on its way to leading the green-jobs revolution. Its Green Vision includes plans for bringing 25,000 new clean-tech jobs to the area.

Austin's new smart grid will light up the night -- sustainably, of course.Photo: Visualist Images6. Austin, Texas
A liberal outpost in red Texas, this city owns its electric utility (meaning voters elect the utility's board) and plans to adopt a smart grid in the near future.

Sacramento aims to be green while it grows.Photo: kla40677. Sacramento, Calif.
The Golden State's capital, while suffering from the side effects of rapid population growth, has a progressive, publicly owned utility that, in addition to offering a 100 percent renewable power option, provides free trees to residents hoping to cool their homes with natural shade.

Boston stands out among less-green East Coast cities.Photo: werkunz18. Boston, Mass.
Boston's push toward wind and solar energy, its efforts to become more bike-friendly, and its LED traffic lights make it a leader on the environmentally lagging East Coast.

Denver conserves water like nobody's business.Photo: kla40679. Denver, Colo.
The Mile High City is already way ahead of its goals for reducing water consumption. Its new bike-sharing and composting programs and extensive system of city parks also helped it make the top 15.

Chicago's city hall has its own green roof.Photo: Smarter Cities10. Chicago
Always famous for its architecture, today Chicago has more LEED-certified buildings than any other U.S. city and boasts 300 green roofs. (Read more about Mayor Richard Daley's green efforts.)

San Diego is growing smart.Photo: Smarter Cities11. San Diego
Parks and open spaces make up almost a quarter of this city's land area, and its smart growth program has led to impressive developments.

The Big (Green) Apple.Photo: mikeleeorg12. New York City
What it lacks in air quality and renewable energy it makes up for in density, walkability, and Mayor Bloomberg's commitment to reducing the city's carbon footprint. (Read more about Bloomberg's green efforts.)

L.A. works to clear a path through the smog.Photo: Storm Crypt13. Los Angeles
Infamous for its smog and clogged freeways, L.A. is making admirable efforts to switch to renewable energy and conserve its water supply.

Big D: Greener than you'd think.Photo: dherrera_9614. Dallas
Dallas gets 40 percent of its electricity from wind, has seen a huge spike in public transit usage in recent years, and cracks down on lengthy truck idling during the "ozone season" from April to October.

Columbus hopes for an urban resurgence.Photo: jpmueller9915. Columbus, Ohio
A perhaps unexpected entry on the list, flat Columbus lends itself to bike-friendliness. The city has also been working hard to revitalize its downtown core and combat sprawl.

Related Links:

Learning how to count to 350

The new wave of urban farming (and fresh food from small spaces!)

Energy Trust and the Big Hope

Greenovations at “The Big Willie,” nee Sears Tower.First the Empire State Building, now Sears Tower: America’s iconic buildings are going green! The press is all abuzz about yesterday’s announcement by the owners of Chicago’s 110-story landmark—North America’s tallest, and the third-tallest in the world—that they will cut energy use 80 percent and water use 40 percent. The $350 million project will include replacing 16,000 single-pane windows; adding green roofs, wind turbines, and solar panels; relandscaping the plazas around the building’s base; and installing energy-saving fixtures in restrooms, elevators, and other bits of the building’s guts. It is expected to create 3,600 jobs, and an educational center on the ground floor will clue the public in to what’s going on.

All of which is very exciting! Except that two years ago, Richard Daley and Bill Clinton announced that they were ... greening the Sears Tower! So what happened to that undertaking? I’ve contacted the Clinaton Climate Initiative and Sears Tower folks to find out.

Meanwhile, back to the latest announcement: the owners are also floating the idea of building a luxury hotel adjacent to the tower, which would be powered by the juice created next door. However, they dispelled an earlier notion that they would paint the tower silver or sheath it in a silver skin for energy efficiency and zippiness.

“Our plans are very ambitious,” John Huston of American Landmark Properties told the press. “Our plans to modernize and transform this icon will re-establish Sears Tower as a leader, a pioneer.”

By the time the five-year project is finished, I should note, the tower won’t go by that name—in fact, it’s getting rechristened this summer as the Willis Tower, a nod to new (and apparently beyond-mega-wealthy-and-influential) tenant Willis Group Holdings, a global insurance broker. Already, locals have dubbed the structure “The Big Willie.” Heh heh.

Still, regardless of the name (and the dismantling of yet another piece of my elementary-school education—yeah, Pluto, I’m looking at you), the building will still be whoppin’ big, and its retrofit a model for others.

Architect Adrian Smith, whose firm AS+GG is leading the eco-renovation, told the New York Times, “If we can take care of one building that size, it has a huge impact on society. It is a village in and of itself.”

And Smith’s partner in the firm, Gordon Gill, emphasized the importance of retrofits (yay!): “Sustainable architecture in new buildings is important but not enough to address the climate and energy crises facing our world. We have to apply what we’ve learned to our existing stock of commercial buildings—especially iconic structures such as Sears Tower, which we hope will inspire similar initiatives around the globe.”

Fingers crossed.

UPDATE: A spokeswoman for Sears Tower tells me that building management took steps toward an energy audit after the Clinton announcement in 2007 but did not make any other progress. This time around, they’re committed—and their energy cuts will help the Chicago Climate Action Plan reach its goals.

Related Links:

You don’t have to be big to go green

Making buildings more efficient: It helps to understand human behavior

Why buying cheap energy certificates worsens climate change

At one time, Chicago was a serious contender for America's greenest big city. Now they appear to be mostly contending for biggest greenwasher.

I didn't learn the stunning story about what Chicago is trying to get away with until I was interviewed by a Chicago Tribune reporter. His story "Chicago's 'green' promise fades: Chicago taxpayers on hook for carbon credits that do little to fight global warming," was published yesterday:

So what exactly is the city of Chicago wasting its citizens' money on? Good old-fashioned rip-offsets -- in this case, emphasis on the word "old":

"This is very misleading to the public," said Joseph Romm, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who has sharply criticized the carbon offset market. "A city with the clout of Chicago should be able to do this right."

Chicago is, after all, quite close to the countries massive Midwestern wind resource. It really has no excuse for this greenwashing. Heck, even the U.S. Congress has gotten wise to rip offsets (see "House abandons rip-offset purchase. Now can it abandon them in a climate bill?"), as the story notes:

This story has Chicago's whole sordid history, which is well worth reading:

Duh.

Ah, yes, the notorious CCX (see CCX sells rip-offsets: "It seemed a little suspicious that we could get money for doing nothing").

See GAO rips rip-offsets: "The use of carbon offsets in a cap-and-trade system can undermine the system's integrity."

Precisely.

Jeers to Chicago -- and here's hoping this news story jolts them into making things right.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Related Links:

Climate Denial Crock of the Week: The big mist take

What Do Coal and Dirty Dorm Rooms Have in Common?

Clean energy opportunities

Related Links:

You don’t have to be big to go green

Annie Leonard misses the mark in her new video, “The Story of Cap-and-Trade”

Making buildings more efficient: It helps to understand human behavior

Related Links:

Why buying cheap energy certificates worsens climate change

Home Economics of the JP Green House, Part 1

Slideshow: Reinventing the JP Green House

Related Links:

Annie Leonard misses the mark in her new video, “The Story of Cap-and-Trade”

Why buying cheap energy certificates worsens climate change

Home Economics of the JP Green House, Part 1

Related Links:

How green is Chicago?

Jackson goes for gold

The 15 most sustainable U.S. cities

For the fourth year in a row, Portland, Ore., has been named the most sustainable of the 50 largest U.S. cities. The rankings by green org SustainLane, which take 16 economic and quality-of-life factors into consideration, "reveal which cities are increasingly self-sufficient, prepared for the unexpected, and taking steps toward preserving and enhancing their quality of life," says the group. After Portland, this year's top 10 include San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Oakland, and Baltimore. The bottom 10: Nashville, Arlington (Tex.), Long Beach, Colorado Springs, Indianapolis, Virginia Beach, Memphis, Las Vegas, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Mesa. Columbus made the biggest improvement over SustainLane's last list, jumping from No. 50 to No. 30; Las Vegas saw the biggest freefall, from No. 27 to No. 47. Unsurprisingly -- but still unfortunately -- the most affordable cities tended to score the worst on public transit, bike-friendliness, and walkability.

Related Links:

E.U. pushes China further after pledge to slow carbon intensity

Obama headed to Copenhagen, sets the bar for success

Obama going to Copenhagen

Chicago unveiled an ambitious climate-change plan on Thursday aimed at cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of its commitment to meeting the goals of the Kyoto Protocol. Along with over 700 other cities and municipalities in the U.S., Chicago signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, committing it to reducing its climate impact. Chicago's plan includes updating the city's energy codes to mandate more efficient energy use, promoting alternative fuels, adding more green roofs to the city's skyline, upping recycling, educating citizens to conserve energy, and more. The Windy City also apparently struck a deal with two nearby coal-fired power plants to reduce their emissions or close down by 2017. "We can't solve the world's climate-change problem in Chicago, but we can do our part," said Mayor Richard Daley. In addition, officials commissioned a study to forecast what a climate-changed Chicago might look like. By 2100, it predicts, Chicago is likely to see stretches of severe drought, as well as more frequent heavy rains and floods, and up to 30 more days of 100-degree heat in the summer.

Related Links:

E.U. pushes China further after pledge to slow carbon intensity

Obama headed to Copenhagen, sets the bar for success

Obama going to Copenhagen

Related Links:

More NYC farmers markets accept food stamps and sales soar

How green is Chicago?

Stockton Williams on urban retrofits, Obama, and the sexiness of caulking guns

Related Links:

The localization of agriculture

Ask Umbra on her hotness, corporate gift baskets, and more

How green is Chicago?

Related Links:

Jonathan Safran Foer on his book “Eating Animals”

Martha Stewart blisters meat industry in Thanksgiving show

A tasting of four meatless “turkeys” for the holiday table

Beginning Jan. 1, Chicago will levy a 5-cent tax on bottled water; shortly after it goes into effect, an alliance of food and beverage retailer associations plans to sue.

Related Links:

E.U. pushes China further after pledge to slow carbon intensity

Obama headed to Copenhagen, sets the bar for success

Obama going to Copenhagen

The tallest building in North America is officially going green, along with a few of its Windy City counterparts. At a green building expo in Chicago yesterday, former President Bill Clinton and eterna-Mayor Richard Daley announced a partnership to retrofit landmarks including the Sears Tower and the Merchandise Mart, the nation's largest commercial center. Using features like wind turbines and green roofs, the endeavor will seek to save energy, fight climate change, and -- perhaps most important -- show other communities and countries around the world that environment and economy do mix. Green building and other climate fixes represent "a staggering economic opportunity," Clinton said. "I think this is the greatest opportunity our country has had to generate prosperity since we mobilized for World War I." Daley, who first took office in 1914, nodded sagely.

Related Links:

Why buying cheap energy certificates worsens climate change

Home Economics of the JP Green House, Part 1

Slideshow: Reinventing the JP Green House

Related Links:

The localization of agriculture

EPA punts on raising ethanol “blend wall”

Do diesel-based farmers dream of electric tractors?

A Think Outside the Bottle campaign kicked off today, urging municipal governments to cut off bottled-water contracts and to press for greater disclosure of the source of bottled H2O. The campaign is spearheaded by Corporate Accountability International and joined by cities including Boston, Minneapolis, Sacramento, and Portland, Ore., many of which held taste tests today to see if consumers can tell the difference between bottled and tap water. Chicago's mayor urged a 10-cent tax on bottled water, while Salt Lake City Mayor (and official Grist crush) Rocky Anderson told it like it is: "When I see people ... waste their money buying bottled water at the vending [machine] when it's standing right next to a water faucet, you really have to wonder at the utter stupidity and the responsibility sometimes of American consumers." Not to be outdone, the International Bottled Water Association issued a press release stating that the campaign is "based on factual errors and subjective viewpoints."

Related Links:

E.U. pushes China further after pledge to slow carbon intensity

Obama headed to Copenhagen, sets the bar for success

Obama going to Copenhagen

Related Links:

Top 25 reasons to give a damn about climate change

Global boiling declares war on Thanksgiving

How green is Chicago?

Related Links:

Ask Umbra on ditching dirty things

Ask Umbra’s video advice on composting

Ask Umbra on trash, toxics, and tots