Certificate Error when using wikipedia API in python 3.7 - python-3.x

Question

When I'm trying to use the Wikipedia API, I get a certificate error message.
This for an assistant I am coding on a school computer and I think it is something that has been put there by administration as I got a certificate error when using NPM previously.
Here is the code I am using:
wikiSearch = query.strip("wiki ")
outputs = wikipedia.summary(wikiSearch, sentences=3)
I thought this would return the first three sentences of the article as it does in python 2.7 but instead returns this lengthy error message:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/urllib3/connectionpool.py", line 603, in urlopen
chunked=chunked)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/urllib3/connectionpool.py", line 344, in _make_request
self._validate_conn(conn)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/urllib3/connectionpool.py", line 843, in _validate_conn
conn.connect()
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/urllib3/connection.py", line 350, in connect
ssl_context=context)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/urllib3/util/ssl_.py", line 355, in ssl_wrap_socket
return context.wrap_socket(sock, server_hostname=server_hostname)
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/ssl.py", line 412, in wrap_socket
session=session
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/ssl.py", line 853, in _create
self.do_handshake()
File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/ssl.py", line 1117, in do_handshake
self._sslobj.do_handshake()
ssl.SSLCertVerificationError: [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1056)
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/adapters.py", line 449, in send
timeout=timeout
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/urllib3/connectionpool.py", line 641, in urlopen
_stacktrace=sys.exc_info()[2])
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/urllib3/util/retry.py", line 399, in increment
raise MaxRetryError(_pool, url, error or ResponseError(cause))
urllib3.exceptions.MaxRetryError: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='en.wikipedia.org', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /w/api.php?list=search&srprop=&srlimit=1&limit=1&srsearch=alex&srinfo=suggestion&format=json&action=query (Caused by SSLError(SSLCertVerificationError(1, '[SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1056)')))
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "dave.py", line 54, in <module>
index()
File "dave.py", line 24, in index
outputs = wikipedia.summary(wikiSearch, sentences=3)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/util.py", line 28, in __call__
ret = self._cache[key] = self.fn(*args, **kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/wikipedia.py", line 231, in summary
page_info = page(title, auto_suggest=auto_suggest, redirect=redirect)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/wikipedia.py", line 270, in page
results, suggestion = search(title, results=1, suggestion=True)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/util.py", line 28, in __call__
ret = self._cache[key] = self.fn(*args, **kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/wikipedia.py", line 103, in search
raw_results = _wiki_request(search_params)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/wikipedia.py", line 737, in _wiki_request
r = requests.get(API_URL, params=params, headers=headers)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/api.py", line 75, in get
return request('get', url, params=params, **kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/api.py", line 60, in request
return session.request(method=method, url=url, **kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 533, in request
resp = self.send(prep, **send_kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 668, in send
history = [resp for resp in gen] if allow_redirects else []
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 668, in <listcomp>
history = [resp for resp in gen] if allow_redirects else []
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 247, in resolve_redirects
**adapter_kwargs
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 646, in send
r = adapter.send(request, **kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/adapters.py", line 514, in send
raise SSLError(e, request=request)
requests.exceptions.SSLError: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='en.wikipedia.org', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /w/api.php?list=search&srprop=&srlimit=1&limit=1&srsearch=alex&srinfo=suggestion&format=json&action=query (Caused by SSLError(SSLCertVerificationError(1, '[SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1056)')))
Edit:
I now get this error:
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Desktop/Dave/dave.py", line 84, in <module>
index()
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Desktop/Dave/dave.py", line 26, in index
outputs = wikipedia.summary(wikiSearch, sentences=3)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/util.py", line 28, in __call__
ret = self._cache[key] = self.fn(*args, **kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/wikipedia.py", line 231, in summary
page_info = page(title, auto_suggest=auto_suggest, redirect=redirect)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/wikipedia.py", line 270, in page
results, suggestion = search(title, results=1, suggestion=True)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/util.py", line 28, in __call__
ret = self._cache[key] = self.fn(*args, **kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/wikipedia.py", line 103, in search
raw_results = _wiki_request(search_params)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/wikipedia/wikipedia.py", line 737, in _wiki_request
r = requests.get(API_URL, params=params, headers=headers)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/api.py", line 75, in get
return request('get', url, params=params, **kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/api.py", line 60, in request
return session.request(method=method, url=url, **kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 533, in request
resp = self.send(prep, **send_kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/sessions.py", line 646, in send
r = adapter.send(request, **kwargs)
File "/Users/alexander.hawking/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/requests/adapters.py", line 510, in send
raise ProxyError(e, request=request)
requests.exceptions.ProxyError: HTTPConnectionPool(host='myproxy.proxy.com', port=1234): Max retries exceeded with url: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?list=search&srprop=&srlimit=1&limit=1&srsearch=alex&srinfo=suggestion&format=json&action=query (Caused by ProxyError('Cannot connect to proxy.', NewConnectionError('<urllib3.connection.HTTPConnection object at 0x10e2d3eb8>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 8] nodename nor servname provided, or not known')))

Answer 1

As you have mentioned that you encountered a similar error when you were working with NPM, it's most likely due to the proxy setup by your administration.
You can configure the proxy for any third party module to connect to the internet. By default, urlopen of urllib3 uses the environment variable http_proxy to determine which HTTP proxy to use.
run this command in CMD before running your python application
export http_proxy='http://myproxy.proxy.com:1234'
============================================================
if you don't know your proxy you can try this workaround.
run this command in CMD before running the python application
export CURL_CA_BUNDLE=''
or add these lines to your code to avoid adding environment variable manually every time.
import os
os.environ['CURL_CA_BUNDLE'] = ""
if you are getting InsecureRequestWarning and you want to suppress it you can do the following.
import wikipedia
import os
import urllib3
urllib3.disable_warnings(urllib3.exceptions.InsecureRequestWarning)
os.environ['CURL_CA_BUNDLE'] = ""
os.environ['PYTHONWARNINGS']="ignore:Unverified HTTPS request"
print(wikipedia.wikipedia.summary("Google"))
I hope this helps.