(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- It's a new year, and the planet has more challenges ahead.
Michelle Carr is Director of The Nature Conservancy in Illinois. She told WBBM the climate crisis can be scary, but there is progress being made as she shared her thoughts on the most recent national climate assessment, which comes out every four years.
"It highlights more directly the impacts we're seeing on the ground that everyday people are seeing and witnessing," she said. "We're seeing rapid changes in the way we experience weather whether that heat extremes or flooding that's sporadic throughout our city."
Carr said the flooding that Chicago saw last year was due to heavier rain clouds that resulted from a warmer atmosphere.
"When one community gets two inches (rain) while three blocks away, they get seven or eight inches and that really happened," she explained. "That is some of the effect we're seeing."
Carr doesn't think people should be scared of climate change, but they should be mobilized and attentive.
"The climate crisis is a crisis and we need to have all hands on deck," she said.
Carr also said January is a good time to consider going "plant-based," noting that a vegan diet is much better for the planet as well as implementing green infrastructure.
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