July 18, 2013 - In so many ways, Chicago really is My Kind of Town. I grew up in its western suburbs, and to this day believe I've enjoyed a lifetime of benefit derived from its can-do qualities. It’s comforting to know that some things never change. Today, with Rahm Emanuel at the helm, the Windy City puts to work the best environmental ideas out there, as soon as they become available. Urban planning has become a lot greener over the years in Chicago, because climate change is causing very intense thunderstorms and extreme temperatures. These worsening problems have caused the city to take an experimental approach to their solution. Take smog-eating pavement, for instance. With an active ingredient called titanium dioxide, the cement pavers set off a chemical reaction with sunlight that cleans all the air as far as eight feet above them. They were developed by Italian cement giant Italcementi when the Vatican wanted to build a churc...
Understanding the global-warming world: causes and ramifications.