NBC 5 to air climate change special “Global Climate: Local Impact” Friday

Global Climate: Local Impact to take a look how climate change is affecting the Chicago area

While most area TV stations and Amazon will be airing football on Black Friday, NBC 5 is taking a different approach to counterprogramming – airing a news special on how local authorities are responding to the global climate change crisis.

Titled Global Climate: Local Impact, Kate Chappell reports on about how Chicagoans are increasingly concerned about the effects of climate change and uses data-driven information to see how the changes are taking place. The special airs this Friday at 4:30 p.m.

“From our health to our safety, to our local business community’s livelihood, we are seeing and feeling the impact of climate change in all aspects of our daily life,” said Sally Ramirez, senior VP of News of WMAQ and Telemundo’s WSNS, who both share NBCUniversal as a corporate parent. “Our upcoming Global Climate, Local Impact special will help Chicago and Illinois residents understand how climate change is affecting their lives, along with providing solutions on how to navigate this growing global concern.”

The special is broken down into four segments – the impact climate change is having on allergy season; more and more warmer winters; its impact on weather including increased tornadoes in Illinois; and how farmers are dealing with the changes.

Climate change events are becoming more common worldwide and Chicago is no exception. This year, two major rain events struck the area. On the same day NASCAR hosted the inaugural Great Chicago Street Race, streets and homes were flooded from massive downpours in the far western part of the city and in suburban Cicero. Another major rainstorm hit the south suburbs two months ago affecting Calumet City, Dolton, and South Holland among others, flooding basements and streets. On Monday, President Biden issued a disaster declaration for the area.

NBC 5 is the latest Chicago station to focus on climate change and its effects on Chicagoans. Last year, WGN’s Tom Skilling hosted a similar special, cobbled together from a three-part series airing on the station’s newscasts. ABC 7’s (WLS-TV) Cheryl Scott has also hosted a climate change series for National Geographic, the five-part So Great, So Fragile on how the Great Lakes are being impacted (the series from 2020 is still available to view through ABC 7’s website, YouTube, and Hulu.)

A second edition of Global Climate – focusing on climate change’s impact on individual communities, is planned for next year.

Global Climate is also being streamed on WMAQ’s local news streaming channel NBC Chicago News which is on Peacock; FAST networks Samsung TV Plus, Freevee, XumoPlay, and Local Now; and Amazon, Roku, and Apple TV devices.