Most cash registers are ready for it. Most retailers know it's coming. Over two thousand people in Duluth have signed a pledge to support it. Even the ordinance has basically been written. So why hasn't the Duluth City Council moved ahead with the proposed initiative to place a nominal charge on single use carryout bags, eliminate non-compostable plastic straws (and offer alternatives only on demand) and phase out Styrofoam™ to-go containers? More information about Bag It, Duluth's screening of

Honor The Earth’s Winona LaDuke in a wide-ranging conversation about the Green New Deal, the Husky Energy refinery explosion a year later, Line 3 and the work Native communities are doing to move toward clean, sustainable energy.

In a special full-length podcast, KUMD's Adam Reinhardt investigates the concept of Energy Democracy and the possibility of expanding citizen participation in energy production as the world transitions to renewables. Focusing on Germany as our key example, Adam talks with Craig Morris, author of Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables. He also talks with Anya Schoolman, Executive Director of US-based solar advocacy group Solar United Neighbors. To conclude, Dr. Josef Pesch, a

The scope of Earth Day has expanded since the first observation April 22, 1070. Even though UMD students will still be out Tuesday, April 23 for an Earth Day clean-up at the Bagley Nature Area , the president of the Student Sustainability Coalition will spend Monday explaining the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals each country needs to achieve by 2030. The UN has also released The Lazy Person's Guide to Saving the World , which includes an entire list of actions you can take without

Tone Lanzillo re-thought pretty much his whole life over the last three years or so ... The former mental health worker decided to downsize and relocate his life so he could find a community in which he could make a difference. But no one was as surprised as he to see his two-week stay in Duluth turn into a permanent gig. Here, he found a place he could make a difference. But be careful of what ideas you float to a group of UMD students: a tossed-out idea at an MPIRG meeting last year resulted

Digital mapping tools are out of reach of many organizations that could use them to help guide their decision making. Adam Reinhardt sat down with Will Bartsch of NRRI to talk about their new online altas tool that allows users access to hundreds of layers natural resource data.

Don't try to tell Mary Franz that individuals can't affect the trajectory of climate change. The organizing director of MPIRG at UMD says all our decisions matter. And if we look for them, we can see the components of change all around us. The Our Planet, Our Future: Environmental Summit will be held March 28; you can find more information here.

John Lamprecht doesn't mind if you describe him as a "fun guy" - in fact, the president of the Minnesota Mycological Society embraces the bad puns that come from loving the study of fungus. A man "raised to be terrified of mushrooms" talks about how he became fascinated with the fungus among-us. Links: Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest by Teresa Marrone and Kathy Yerich Mushrooms of the Midwest by Michael Kuo and Andrew S. Methven Minnesota Mycological Society Minnesota Mushrooms Facebook page

Up until recently, the climate change conversation was conducted by scientists, and accompanied by lots of charts, graphs, and data. But Jothsna Harris of Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy says most people aren't scientists. And she thinks we need to shift the conversation away from people's heads ... and toward their hearts.

We speak with Tressie Kamp a staff attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates, who is working with petitioners on the City of Racine Diversion Challenge . The Racine Diversion is a water diversion application submitted by the city of Racine to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in January 2018 requesting permission to divert up to an annual average of 7 million gallons of water a day from Lake Michigan to the village of Mount Pleasant (near Racine) in the Mississippi River Basin.