Begrudgingly, I’m Recycling

Nuance Alert: If you see the world in clear cases of right and wrong, black and white, us and them, you’re going to be confused by what you read next. I color myself fully for the environment. Climate change is real, human impacts are pushing the global environment out of balance, and we should absolutely

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Be On the Look Out for Canadian Super Pig

If you had ‘Canadian Super Pig’ on your bingo card of things to worry about, you may be a winner in today’s guess the news game. Levity aside, these pigs are no joke. They’re cross-bred from domestic varieties and wild boars and are adapting quickly to the cold of Northern climates, and it’s not a

Read & Share   sourced from: The Guardian

The Anatomy of North Dakota Forestry

This semester, I’m teaching an on-campus class called River and Stream Resource Management. I’m having a blast with the class, but I’m struggling a little with some of the terminology. I’m a forester and a lot of the material is new to me. If you can explain “entrenchment ratio” to me, I’d appreciate it. Technical

Read & Share   sourced from: Dakota Gardener

Fargo scraps curbside glass recycling

What does it make sense to recycle? That’s not an answer under control of municipalities with recycling programs, because it depends on what the MRFs (material recovery facilities) will accept. And the Minneapolis-based MRF Fargo sends their recycling to is no longer accepting glass. It just doesn’t pay. It’s causing an abrupt change to Fargo’s

Read & Share   sourced from: InForum

Farmers’ Crop Plantings Chasing Climate Patterns to new Territories

What’s a solid sign that the climate may be changing at a really slow pace? Are crops growing in places that were previously inhospitable to them an answer? On the question of climate change, maybe its a clue. But new crops in new places isn’t speculation, it’s a reality. Cotton in Kansas, new grape varieties

Read & Share   sourced from: Grist

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Coal Creek Station Out of Compliance With EPA Coal Ash Storage and Ground Water Protections

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the latest action to protect communities and hold facilities accountable for controlling and cleaning up the contamination created by coal ash disposal. The Agency issued six proposed determinations to deny facilities’ requests to continue disposing of coal combustion residuals (CCR or coal ash) into unlined surface

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Bill would keep ESG considerations out of MT’s investing decisions

ESG stands for ‘environment’, ‘social’, and ‘governance’.  It’s an acronym to describe the emerging pressure corporations and businesses are under to be transparent regarding practices related to the environment, social, and governance issues. As an example, banks that reduce or stop lending to carbon-based energy projects would be an example of an ESG policy. It’s

Read & Share   sourced from: Helena Independent Record

State legislators are presenting a resolution to save the wild horses at TRNP

The National Park Service has been studying the livestock including wild horses in Teddy Roosevelt National Park; they can’t find a natural reason within the Park Service’s mandate for them to remain. It’s an issue that, now exposed, is riling up citizens. They’re reached out to state legislators for support. Adrienne Oglesby with KX News

Read & Share   sourced from: KX News

Bison spread as Native American tribes reclaim stewardship

There are few symbols more representative of the great plains than the buffalo. Their story is just as evocative. Prior to European expansion west, their numbers were thought to exceed 30 million. A short generation later, the consequences of manifest destiny brought the animals to near extinction. Today, their survival is no longer in doubt,

Read & Share   sourced from: Associated Press

Can a Seaweed additive in Cow Feed Reduce the Amount of Methane They Fart? (And Why It Matters in North Dakota)

Did you know that as cows digest the grass and other feed they eat they create a lot of methane gas? It’s true. Did you also know that methane is a big contributor to climate change? It’s also true. It’s a situation that puts the cattle industry in the crosshairs of environmental regulation, and in

Read & Share   sourced from: Quartz

U.S. Approves First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor, Beginning New Era for Atomic Energy

Nuclear energy is back. Well, it never really went away, but a new wave of small reactors is on the horizon, and the design that drives them was recently approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It’s just the seventh reactor design approved for use in the U.S. and what makes it different is its

Read & Share   sourced from: Vice

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U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Went Up Again in 2022

In spite of widespread efforts to curb them, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow. The Federal government has set a reduction goal to 50% of the 2005 levels by 2030. To achieve that goal, the U.S. will need to average a 5% annual reduction between now and then. Why does it matter in Minot?

Read & Share   sourced from: Scientific American

Firm seeks to build solar panel plant in Manitoba

The first phase of a possible solar industry cluster is in the works in southeast Manitoba. Companies of the same industry often cluster together because they benefit from proximity to each other. Sio Silica makes the first ingredient — pure quartz silica — that goes into the production of a host of other end products

Read & Share   sourced from: Brandon Sun

How old are the Walleye in Lake Sakakawea? And what can we learn from knowing?

Have you wondered how old the fish are in Lake Sakakwea? Would you like to know why it matters? If so, Mike Anderson with North Dakota Game & Fish has you covered. The video below gives you a quick primer on how biologists determine fish age and how the knowledge helps us manage our fisheries.

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Road salts washing into the river, damaging ecosystems and pipes

“There’s pretty good evidence that if we continue to use salt at the rate we do now, it’s going to be detrimental to the rivers and lakes eventually.” That’s the comment of Ryan Westphal, the Facilities Director for La Crosse County, Wisconsin, on the long-standing practice of dumping salt on almost any amount of snow.

Read & Share   sourced from: Wisconsin Watch

New Ken Burns film on buffalo includes Indigenous voices from North Dakota.

The news was released recently; the film will be released in October, and it’s about a story very much at the heart of North Dakota. The filmmaker is Ken Burns, the topic is the story of the American buffalo and its journey to near extinction and back again. The full news release from PBS is

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