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.

U of M study: Without protections, many Midwest lakes will lose coldwater habitat
The study of more than 10,000 lakes in eight Upper Midwest states concluded that protecting or restoring forests within some lakes’ watersheds could help conserve critical coldwater habitat, even amid warming temperatures.
MnDOT exploring new pavement mixes to reduce use of carbon-intensive concrete
The experimental pavement mixes incorporate recycled bottles, fiber and other materials to reduce the proportion of concrete needed. The agency is also looking at whether it can sequester carbon in its pavement.
Extreme heat is becoming more common. What are cities doing about it?
Sweltering summer temperatures across the U.S. has cities looking for new ways to lessen the impact of extreme heat caused by climate change. MPR News host Angela Davis talks with three experts about what we can do to address the heat and the climate crisis.
Regional food recovery effort keeps excess fresh food out of landfills, fills gaps in food insecurity
Even after food stores pass excess fresh food they cannot sell to food shelves, some of that produce may still go to waste. If food shelf clients don’t pick it up, it might go to the landfill. In Mankato, the South Central Minnesota Food Recovery Project has come up with another way to use that food, while also helping the planet.
Lake Minnetonka conservation board mulls proposal to limit wakes
The Lake Minnetonka Conservation District board is taking public comment on a proposal to change rules that would limit boat speeds within 300 feet of shore
Once-ignored Indigenous knowledge of nature now shaping science
Traditional ecological knowledge has long been dismissed by Western culture as stories or legends, rather than real science. But there's new interest in tapping into the wisdom about plants, trees, wildlife and climate that Native American people have collected over time.
U.S. to plant 1 billion trees as climate change kills forests
The Biden administration on Monday said the government will plant more than one billion trees across millions of acres of burned and dead woodlands in the U.S. West, as officials struggle to counter the increasing toll on the nation's forests from wildfires, insects and other manifestations of climate change.
Karen Oberhauser on the future of endangered monarch butterflies
Minnesota’s official state butterfly is now on the endangered species list. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says the migrating monarch butterfly was moved for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as “endangered” — two steps from extinct. Dr. Karen Oberhauser is UW-Madison’s Arboretum director. She joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the future of monarch butterflies.