This summer Chicago has had around a week worth of days where the air quality was bad enough to force us to change our plans. As I read about what’s happening around the rest of the planet with heat waves and wildfires I’m thankful to live in Chicago. I will happily endure winter if it means I can have my windows open through much of the summer. I can’t see myself ever moving away from the great lakes. My hope is that our location north of the equator, and promixity to fresh water, will allow Chicago to handle the effects of climate change better than other parts of the US. While climate change has always been a “later” boogeyman, it seems as if this summer is the first where extreme weather events are dominating the news cycle.