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.

Your hummus habit could be good for the Earth
High in fiber and protein, chickpeas are playing a starring role on menus. They're also good for soil health -- and growing demand could help restore soils depleted by decades of intensive farming.
Photos: Immigrant kids jump into Minnesota's outdoor summer culture
A Minnesota summer camp is helping connect city kids and children of refugees to the state's outdoor summer culture, often for the first time. It's also altering perceptions about who enjoys the outdoors.
A fisherman's hope for balance between urban development and natural conservation
Minneapolis has proposed plans to develop the Mississippi riverfront with affordable housing, innovation hubs and a large outdoor amphitheater. Nicholas Hammer, a northside resident who's continuing a family tradition of fishing the Mississippi, hopes it can be done while protecting the beauty in and around the river.
Plastic has a big carbon footprint -- but that isn't the whole story
Plastic waste litters cities, oceans and even the air. Largely overlooked is how making plastic affects the environment. Plastic is a big contributor to global warming. So are its alternatives.
23 U.S. governors join Calif. in opposing Trump mileage freeze
The commitment underscores prospects for years of legal challenges and regulatory uncertainty for automakers if the Trump administration moves ahead on the mileage freeze over objections from California and other states.
How a grocery store's plan to shame customers into using reusable bags backfired
A Canadian grocery store put embarrassing slogans, such as "Wart Ointment Wholesale" and "Into the Weird Adult Video Emporium," on plastic bags to get customers to use reusable shopping bags. Instead, people began flocking to the market, paying 5 cents each in hopes of collecting the designs.