Environmental News

MPR News is your source for environment news from Minnesota and across the country.

Getting to Green: Minnesota’s energy future

Getting to Green is an MPR News series that shares stories about Minnesota’s clean energy transition, including what needs to be done to get there.

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Climate Cast

Listen to Climate Cast, the MPR News podcast all about our changing climate and its impact in Minnesota and worldwide.

Do wealthy countries owe poorer ones for climate change? One country wrote up a bill
At global climate negotiations, developing countries say they're being devastated by a problem they didn't cause. So they're looking for compensation for the losses and damage from climate change.
Dire warnings from world leaders at annual global climate conference
The United Nations’ COP27 global climate summit of world leaders takes place this week. And the need for global cooperation against climate change is more urgent than ever.
Why Lake Superior's legendary gales blow especially hard in November
Gale force winds and 20 foot tall waves are whipped across Lake Superior today, on the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. There are specific reasons why the wind and waves tend to whip up the same time of year around the Great Lakes.
Here are 3 dangerous climate tipping points the world is on track for
Global leaders are negotiating about how to cut greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. Scientists say every passing day, and every tenth of a degree, makes a big difference.
Waite Park grapples with granite’s role
As old quarries are given new life, a fast-growing St. Cloud suburb considers how to balance mining and development with nature preservation.
Oh snap! Massive turtle surfaces in Brainerd, sets social networks atwitter
“My daughter all of a sudden said, ‘Mom, be quiet. I can hear something breathing,’” Shala Holm recalled as the dinosaur-like creature approached them while they fished in a kayak on the Mississippi River. Her picture of the snapping turtle is rocketing around online.
Gore announces fossil fuel emissions inventory at UN summit
A detailed inventory of the top known sources of greenhouse gas emitters launched by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore at the U.N. climate summit in Egypt on Wednesday found that the top 14 individual polluters are all gas and oil fields and their associated facilities, despite their emissions being “significantly underreported.”
UN experts urge stringent rules to stop net zero greenwash
Oil companies pledging to get their emissions down to net zero better make sure they’ve got a credible plan and aren’t just making false promises, U.N. experts said in a report Tuesday urging tough standards on emissions cutting vows.