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From WBEZ.

Hi, I'm editor Jessica Pulpec.

If you lived in Chicago in 2008, you might remember an ambitious environmental plan that came from an unlikely champion.

To me, the environment is extremely important. I hear a lot of people giving a lot of speeches and talks and conferences.

The best thing is a lead by example. That's former mayor Richard M. Daly. His so-called climate action plan made national news.

Mayor Richard Daly is working to make this enormous teeming city the greenest city in America.

Daly set more than 30 goals for the city to hit by 2020. They ranged from things like

reducing emissions to boosting recycling and even building thousands of green roofs.

Ecologist and curious citizen Alison Anastasio has been following the progress on Daly's climate action plan for years.

She uses it in her classes at the University of Chicago where she lectures.

This plan was really grounded in rigorous scientific research.

And so that made me feel really great about the plan.

And so since I wanted to teach students' evidence-based policy, right, this is a really

great example of that.

But of course, in 2011, just three years after he launched this

big initiative, Daly left office. And when Mayor Rahm Emanuel took over, he came in with his

own environmental agenda, and it did not include Daly's old climate goals. Some say Emanuel

just took a different approach, but others, like Sardu Johnson, who led Daly's old climate goals. Some say Emmanuel just took a different approach, but others, like

Sadiq Johnson, who led Daly's efforts, well, he had a different take. My sense is that it

didn't have the same level of attention and investment after Daly's time. Emmanuel also shut

...