Environment

The sequel to Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s 2005 smash-hit book “Freakonomics” — particularly the final chapter of “SuperFreakonomics” — is giving global warming skeptics hope that they can continue to shift attitudes toward their cause.

More than 2 million pounds of toxic chemicals were dumped into Minnesota’s waterways during 2007, according to a new report (pdf) by Environment Minnesota. 3M was by far the most prolific dumper of pollutants, with more than 1 million pounds discharged into the Mississippi River.
Nationwide at least 232 million pounds of toxic chemicals were released [...]

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) won’t take a position — yet — on whether to require a new environmental study before Hennepin County’s downtown Minneapolis incinerator can burn more trash, because the agency doesn’t have a pending application for the project.

“Parking” took on a new meaning Friday in parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The annual Park(ing) Day had groups of activists and artist hauling sod, grills and lawnchairs to parking spaces, where they plugged the meter all day and hosted impromptu parks. At ten locations — two in St. Paul, eight in Minneapolis — these temporary green spaces were up and running, most through 3 p.m. Friday, but some even later.

The final figures are in for the “Cash for Clunkers” program. Nearly 700,000 vehicles were scrapped through the program and $2.9 billion in rebate applications were received, according to the White House. Minnesota automobile dealers requested $73,160,500 in rebates, ranking the state 13th in the country in terms of economic impact.

The New York Times carried an article Monday about how Gov. Pawlenty’s take on climate change is “evolving.” He has become less the gung-ho environmental partner to Democrats at the state Capitol and peers across the Midwest and more a non-responsive and even glib antagonist to progress on energy issues. Says one unnamed Wisconsin official: “Pawlenty [...]

Who needs high school football or rock festivals when congressional constituents can get rowdy together at a town hall meeting? People in the First District gave a clinic in civic (and by all accounts civil) boisterousness at U.S. Rep. Tim Walz’s health care forum Thursday night. Passion was in fashion, with one speaker telling Walz [...]

The last time Republican candidates for governor were all (or mostly all) in one place, someone had to go and start a straw poll. Party leaders halted that plebiscite halfway through to preserve suspense for an official straw poll Oct. 3. So leave your straw at home before you head to today’s GOP picnic at [...]

“Panel tells DNR moose hunting should be allowed.” Other news media also cover a new report from Minnesota’s Moose Advisory Committee to the state Department of Natural Resources, but only the Star Tribune’s headline hinted at the potential gallows humor in a Palinesque death panel for Minnesota’s biggest mammals. The committee proposes a moose harvest (sorry, [...]

Most people who fish like a good tussle. But those who prefer less aggressive quarry might try wetting a line downstream from an ethanol plant. A new study of 19 sites in Minnesota and Iowa shows that the production of biofuels can put plant-based estrogens into the water of the sort that have been linked [...]