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.

Submit a question or story for Getting to Green here.

Climate Cast

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

How Big Oil misled the public into believing plastic would be recycled
An NPR and PBS “Frontline” investigation reveals how the oil and gas industry used the promise of recycling to sell more plastic, even when they knew it would never work on a large scale.
Carmakers revving up electric truck and SUV production
Nearly half of all vehicles sold in the United States are sport utility vehicles, and the International Energy Agency reports they’re second-largest contributor to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the last decade. But a new wave of electric SUVs and pickup trucks is on the horizon.
St. Paul brewery, U of M team up on Organic Brewers Alliance
The project will help breweries connect with organic farms for hops, barley and other ingredients such as honey. The goal is to support sustainable agriculture practices.
The world lost two-thirds of its wildlife in 50 years. We are to blame
Human activities are causing an "unprecedented" and alarming decline in wildlife populations around the world, a new report warns. It says the staggering loss ultimately threatens human life as well.
Small farmers challenge conventional agriculture in Pineland Sands
One farmer's plans to irrigate his land to grow crops has triggered a legal challenge by organic farmers and clean water advocates. They say traditional agriculture is not a good fit for the sandy soil, and they envision a different way of farming in this region.
Gusty winds pose continued wildfire threats in California
Wildfires are raging unchecked throughout California, and authorities say gusty winds could drive flames with new ferocity. Diablo winds in the north and Santa Ana winds in the south are forecast into Wednesday in areas where blazes already have grown explosively.
Widened by erosion, iconic Mississippi headwaters to undergo restoration work
More than half a million people visit the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Itasca State Park every year, most stepping along the path of stones to cross the river at its humble beginnings. Over decades, those many feet have eroded the shoreline.
The annual State Fair weather quiz with Mark Seeley is on
The Minnesota State Fair might be canceled, but there’s no way we would have let the annual weather quiz with Mark Seeley go on hiatus for a pandemic. For the 24th year in a row, Seeley took listeners’ questions about the weather and quizzed them back.