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

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The Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota is hosting an international forum Thursday on the water quality challenges facing the Red River Basin in the U.S. and Canada.
How did 'Silent Spring' shape America?
Historians have said that the beginning of the American environmental movement can be traced back to the date, 50 years ago, when Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" was published. The work led to the passage of the Clean Water Act and the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Blighted icon: Volunteers aim to revive American chestnut
The American chestnut once towered over everything else in the forest. It was called the "redwood of the East." Then, the blight struck, and by the 1950s, this mightiest of trees was all but extinct. Now, after 30 years of breeding and crossbreeding, The American Chestnut Foundation believes it has developed a potentially blight-resistant tree.
Corps not budging on Miss. River flap
The Army Corps of Engineers has turned back requests by federal lawmakers and the barge industry to release more water from the Missouri River, believing the drought-starved Mississippi River it feeds still will remain open to shipping despite mounting concerns about water levels.
"Chasing Ice" documents the rapid melting of ice in Earth's polar regions. Here's a selection of video clips from the film, and about the filmmaker, James Balog.
Doing the math on carbon pollution and climate change
Bill McKibben and John Hofmeister at the Commonwealth Club: an environmentalist and a former oil company president discuss the extent and impact of carbon pollution and the science and politics of global warming.