At the Morton Arboretum, Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium, teams of scientists are working to mitigate changes to climate in the Chicago area right now.
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"This is the first time in human history that we've really had concrete data about what may be happening going forward," said John Bates, Field Museum curator of birds.
Bates said 40 years of research in the field have shown the size of birds that migrate in the Chicago area is getting smaller.
"Forty years is a fairly short period of time, so that's disconcerting, but it's a trend line that actually may continue into to the future," he said. "It may be that some of these birds can't get to the point where they can adapt as climate change goes on."
His colleague Bruno De Medeiros, who is assistant curator of pollinating insects for the Field Museum, said the variety of insects has gone down, with potential impacts to the broader ecosystem.
"I'm absolutely sure that through time we have seen a decline of not only diversity but abundance of insects in our area," he said.
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U.S. Congressman Mike Quigley, who toured many of these facilities Thursday, said these institutions are vital to finding solutions to combat climate change.
"They unlock our past. And they're able to help us understand what we're going to be facing with climate change and even more important than that is they can help us address it," he said. "Our grandchildren will either love us or hats us the most for what we do or don't do on climate change now."
Whether it's at the Morton Arboretum where they're researching resilient tree spaces to weather a warming climate, examining the impact of insect life growing native plant species in your own garden, or tracking migratory patterns of major fresh water fish in Lake Michigan as weather temperatures potentially rise like they are at the Shedd Aquarium, these experts are working t find a solution to existential climate issues.
"All of this monitoring has to continue. If we're going to understand how to effectively steward biodiversity, which is a responsibility we have as humans on this planet," Bates said.
The Chicago Botanic Garden, the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Lincoln Park Lagoon are also among the Chicago institutions responding to climate change.