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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.

Judge largely backs state regulators’ handling of PolyMet permit

Judge largely backs state regulators’ handling of PolyMet permit

Ramsey County District Court Judge John Guthmann largely sided with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s handling of a key water quality permit for the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine. But the judge ruled that the MPCA improperly destroyed documents critical to the case.
by Dan Kraker

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There's a push to name and rank heat waves

There's a push to name and rank heat waves

We’ve named hurricanes for decades and The Weather Channel names winter storms. Now one group wants to name heat waves to boost awareness about their growing impact.
by Paul Huttner and Megan Burks

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Study: No deadly Legionella strain in closed U of M buildings’ water

Study: No deadly Legionella strain in closed U of M buildings’ water

This spring, as COVID-19 sent people across the University of Minnesota to work and learn from home, two professors launched a study to look for the presence of Legionella bacteria in the water supplies of buildings on the university’s Twin Cities campuses.
by Kirsti Marohn

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In Duluth, shoring up Superior's encroachment on Park Point

In Duluth, shoring up Superior's encroachment on Park Point

For the past several years, cities and property owners along the Great Lakes have been battered by big storms and high water. That includes the Duluth neighborhood of Park Point, the 7-mile sand spit that juts out into Lake Superior from downtown. Now there’s an effort to rebuild it. 
by Dan Kraker

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Audio postcard: A spot of blue on the prairie

Audio postcard: A spot of blue on the prairie

We have been getting periodic reports from local wildflower enthusiasts Phyllis Root and Kelly Povo this summer. The season is starting to wind down, but they sent us an audio postcard this week from the Iron Horse Prairie Scientific and Natural Area in Hayfield, Minn.

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COVID-19 and climate change: Implications for our food system

COVID-19 and climate change: Implications for our food system

From the Commonwealth Club’s Climate One series, “COVID-19 and climate change: Implications for our food system.”

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Agency denies critical habitat for endangered bumblebee

Agency denies critical habitat for endangered bumblebee

Federal regulators said Monday they would not designate critical habitat for the first bee species in the continental U.S. to be listed as endangered, a move that environmentalists said would worsen its chances for recovery.
by The Associated Press

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Invasive 'jumping worm' leaps into Minnesota

Invasive 'jumping worm' leaps into Minnesota

Add the jumping worm to that ignominious list of invasive species in Minnesota. These destructive earthworms, native to Asia, can quickly degrade soils and damage garden plants and lawns.
by Dan Kraker

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Fertilizer rules to start this week, but will they curb Minn. groundwater’s nitrate problem?

Fertilizer rules to start this week, but will they curb Minn. groundwater’s nitrate problem?

Starting this week, farmers in parts of Minnesota will face new restrictions on how they apply nitrogen fertilizer. The regulations are aimed at reducing nitrate contamination in the state's groundwater. But whether they'll have a real impact on a growing health and environmental problem is still up for debate.
by Kirsti Marohn

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Thousands protest in Mauritius over dead dolphins, oil spill

Thousands protest in Mauritius over dead dolphins, oil spill

Tens of thousands of people protested Saturday in Mauritius over the government’s slow response to an oil spill from a grounded Japanese ship and the alarming discovery of dozens of dead dolphins in recent days.
by The Associated Press

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