No stops in Duluth for the Research Vessel (R/V) Lake Guardian this year, but they're anything but out of touch. The April mission to sample water and biological organisms in all five Great Lakes left Milwaukee April 1, and the 11 scientists aboard have been working 12 hour shifts to collect samples and data.

Dr. Ben Santer's life changed that day he got a phone call from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , asking him to be the lead author of a chapter on the causes of climate change for the 1995 Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) . The world changed the day these words were published: “the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.”

No one's particularly surprised to discover a big corporation or entity is lying to the public. Actually, we kind of expect it. But Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is blowing past that kind of defeatism by filing suit last summer against Big Oil, charging they knew in the '60s about climate change, deliberately lied to Minnesotans about it, and made about $775 billion dollars in the process. The fossil fuel companies had hoped to move their case to federal court, asserting that it was a

It's not that people ignore news stories about climate change ... it's just that the information seems to really sink in when folks hear someone talk about how the climate crisis is affecting them. So to that end, environmental activist Tone Lanzillo is coming up with ways for people to tell their stories - and there's even a newsletter and a podcast in the mix.

When Chad Richardson's son announced that wolves had been added to the newest update to the online video game Fortnite, the family paid attention. Richardson is the communications director for the International Wolf Center, so he was curious about how wolves were presented in the game. Turns out it's perpetuating a couple of troubling stereotypes: wolves as snarling predators that attack humans or as animals that can be tamed and turned into pets. Is there any point in objecting to the portrayal

Here's what we know: Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are getting into Lake Superior and getting into fish. Here's something else we know: Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) are the most common of these chemicals and they bio-accumulate - which means they move through the food chain. And while we don't know how they're getting into the lake, or how they've getting into smelt, the Wisconsin DNR and Department of Health Services are

Old, energy-inefficient houses are bad enough. But add some dangerously cold weather and people needing to stay home thanks to a pandemic and you've got a triple-whammy for homeowners and renters. Enter Ecolibrium3. The Eco3 Energy Team has energy audits available for any- and everyone , but f or folks who qualify, they've also got help to do some weatherization projects at no cost , and they can also get you in touch with pandemic-related programs that can help with energy bills.

Yes, here in the upper Midwest, our wind turbines are winterized. And unlike texas, Minnesota is connected to a larger power grid. But back during the"polar vortex" of 2019, we had trouble up here pulling the power we needed from the grid down south. And Isabel Ricker, the Senior Clean Electricity Manager of Fresh Energy, says the key is connections: infrastructure connections like new and upgraded wiring, and connections in the form of creating relationships.

Everything from "personal awareness" to city-level action: that's what the Duluth Citizen's Climate Action Plan lays out for folks. The plan aims to help our community reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build a climate-resilient community without forgetting about considerations of equity and social justice. You can read the plan here:

Imagine if "eating local" could mean a nice fillet of salmon, a tuna steak, or a lobster tail and a nice salad made with home-grown greens. Minnesota Sea Grant is working on a project to not only see if there's market potential for aquaculture here in the Northland, they're excited that they might be able to contribute to food production, local business growth and job creation without some of the downsides that have plagued the idea in the past. The solution, in large part, is moving the