MN350 blog

Shaping the narrative about climate justice throughout Minnesota
Green New Deal: issues and opportunities
Green New Deal: issues and opportunities

Imagine a future where our communities run on renewable energy, where housing, education, and healthcare are not commodities but guarantees, where “luxuries” like parks and access to the arts are public goods for everyone to enjoy. The Green New Deal is our pathway to that future. Since I joined MN350’s Green New Deal team last… Read more »

8 ways to help the environment and build collective action
8 ways to help the environment and build collective action

Nearly every article written about helping the environment focuses purely on personal lifestyle changes as the key to preventing climate change. But even with the entire world in some form of lockdown or slowdown earlier this year, emissions were only projected to drop by 5-10%. Yup, you read that right: People weren’t flying, commuting, or… Read more »

The pros of anaerobic digestion (combined heat and power generation)
The pros of anaerobic digestion (combined heat and power generation)

Editor’s Note: This blog post is part of a series on food waste. Read about the issues with food waste and curbside composting. You can also read our series on food choices and climate change: part 1, part 2 and part 3.  What do you get when you combine garbage, food scraps, manure, sewage sludge,… Read more »

Water Relay
Water Relay

Water is life. Water is one of the most abundant substances on our planet, yet it’s still a resource not fully protected, accessible, or valued in our society. As humans, we’re composed of up to 60% water, yet we lack respect for our bodies when we support oil, gas, and coal that infect our water… Read more »

Kivalina: a climate change story, a review
Kivalina: a climate change story, a review

The vast Chukchi Sea, between the Bering Strait and the Arctic Ocean, has been the friend and partner of the Inupiaq people for millennia. It was the source of their life and their culture. But for the Inupiaq who fished and hunted in the area of the Kivalina and Wulik rivers, that began to come… Read more »

A how-to on organics (the polite word for garbage)
A how-to on organics (the polite word for garbage)

Many of us are familiar with recycling. You see the containers everywhere, and the expectation is that you will participate, as carefully as you can. What is beginning to be more prominent and confusing is the bin for organics, or compost. I remember thinking, “They can’t really want me to put my ‘garbage’ in there!” It seemed… Read more »

Call for fossil fuel divestment unites generations of Minnesotans
Call for fossil fuel divestment unites generations of Minnesotans

It’s not often that Gen Z and Boomers are on the same team. Yet, Minnesota youth are joining pension holders to demand that the state divest its pension fund from fossil fuels. Pension holders are asking the state to restructure investments in its pension fund, moving money out of the fossil fuel industry and reinvesting… Read more »

A new age of activism

“Take to the streets! Show them what democracy looks like! Love water! Not oil!” We’re entering a digital era where this activist lingo is likely to be heard on social media, during a virtual protest, or in this case, in a blog by an activist. In light of this historical and devastating pandemic, activism has… Read more »

Food waste and you

Project Drawdown ranks 80 solutions for bringing down the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in order to avert a climate catastrophe. Food waste is ranked at #3 of those solutions, producing about half methane and half carbon dioxide all the way along its life, from fertilizing and preparing the land, growing the… Read more »

Black Lives Matter: There is no climate justice without racial justice
Black Lives Matter: There is no climate justice without racial justice

We stand with Black lives, and we mourn the loss of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Dominique Fells, Riah Milton, Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salau, Rayshard Brooks, and the many others who have lost their lives at the hands of violence. At MN350, we’ve spent the past few weeks organizing in support of Black… Read more »