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.

Meet the U of M’s latest ‘genius grant' winners
Neuroscientist Damien Fair and chemical engineer Paul Dauenhauer will each receive a $625,000 no-strings-attached grant.
In western Minnesota water dispute, it's elite hogs vs. rare fen
A proposed hog farm in northwest Minnesota is at the center of a fight over its environmental assessment. At issue is the protection of a rare type of wetland, and complaints that a state agency is violating Minnesota environmental review law.
Federal judge ousts Trump's top public lands official
A federal judge ruled Friday that President Trump's leading steward of public lands has been serving unlawfully, blocking him from continuing in the position in the latest pushback against the administration's practice of filling key positions without U.S. Senate approval.
Like factory-built homes, nuclear reactors are going modular
The federal government recently approved a new kind of nuclear reactor that’s smaller, cheaper and could be one the final pieces of the carbon-free puzzle.
Invasive vine not reported in North America since 1958 turns up in central Minnesota
An invasive vine not reported in North America for more than 60 years turned up this summer in a small central Minnesota city — a discovery that has local and state officials puzzled as they work to eradicate the plants.
U researchers testing campus sewage for COVID-19
The goal of the project is to give health officials an early warning system by detecting an outbreak earlier than in-person testing.
'It was angry in the way it gobbled up the ground': Fighting fires on the front line of climate change
This year’s historic fire season in the west has made the link between climate change and more intense and frequent wildfires abundantly clear. For firefighter Don Whittemore, it was a close call with a fireball in 2006.
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting climate change?
Climate scientist Kim Cobb and MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joined host Angela Davis to explore how the pandemic is affecting climate change. We're flying less, staying at home more — is it helping?