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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.

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.

Climate change: What we know, what we're doing

Climate change: What we know, what we're doing

We highlight not only how our lives are affected by climate change, but what people are doing about it.
by John Abraham

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PolyMet's copper-nickel mine rekindles decades-old environmental debate

PolyMet's copper-nickel mine rekindles decades-old environmental debate

The battle over copper-nickel mining has its roots in a 1948 discovery by Fred Childers, of Ely. He discovered mineralized rock while blasting to build a Forest Service road.
by Dan Kraker

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American RadioWorks documentary, Power and Smoke: A Nation Built on Coal

American RadioWorks documentary, Power and Smoke: A Nation Built on Coal

The production of electricity in America pumps out more greenhouse gases than all of our cars, trucks, planes, and ships combined, and half of our electricity comes from burning coal. The American RadioWorks documentary unit presents this 2011 documentary, "Power and Smoke: A Nation Built on Coal."
by Catherine Winter

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Water fight over Minn. pig farm goes to court

Neighbors trying to stop a large hog feedlot from being built in central Minnesota are now challenging the state's decision to let the operation draw millions of gallons of groundwater.
by Elizabeth Dunbar

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Eurasian ruffe DNA found in southern Lake Michigan

Genetic material from an invasive fish called the Eurasian ruffe has been found in southern Lake Michigan for the first time, raising the possibility that it could migrate into the Mississippi River watershed.

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Slashing fossil fuel consumption comes with a price

People have been dreaming about clean energy for decades. And for decades, the world has relied overwhelmingly on the much cheaper fossil fuels. Coal, oil and natural gas made up 82 percent of total energy consumed 25 years ago, and they still make up 82 percent of the world's energy diet today.

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Otto: Think of taxpayers when considering copper-nickel mining

Otto: Think of taxpayers when considering copper-nickel mining

State Auditor Rebecca Otto has been an outspoken skeptic of proposals to mine copper and nickel in northern Minnesota.
by Cathy Wurzer

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DNR investigates fish kill in lake near St. Paul

Minnesota officials on Monday were trying to determine what killed thousands of fish in Lake Owasso.

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Photos: At PolyMet, ramping up to mine copper

Photos: At PolyMet, ramping up to mine copper

PolyMet Mining hopes to unlock copper in the rock of northeastern Minnesota. Their plans bring hope for economic development and fear of environmental damage to the region that used to be the hub of the iron ore industry in the state.

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Map: Proposed copper-nickel mines in Minnesota

A study on how an open pit copper-nickel mine could change the landscape just north of the town of Hoyt Lakes will be released in a 1,800-page environmental impact statement available on Dec. 6. This map shows the locations of proposed sites for the PolyMet and Twin Metals copper-nickel mines northern Minnesota.

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