climate change

The U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its Plant Hardiness Zone map for the first time in over a decade. The changes show one effects of the warming climate.

In Montana, climate change means drought in some places, record breaking floods in others and wildfire seasons that burn hotter and last longer. That's according to a new federal climate report released last week.

The report projects a declining snowpack coupled with warmer winters could shorten the skiing season by 33 days in the next few decades. And it shows that big game hunting could decline by 25% by 2050.

Following a lot of news about climate change, protests, presidential directives and court cases, a listener wants to know what Montana is doing to address climate change. It's a big question, so the answer will come in three parts. Here's part 1.

Every three years Montana’s largest electric utility tells the public how it’s planning to meet energy demands, which is going on now. And it follows a major court ruling that found the state’s energy policy is contributing to climate change. MTPR’s Austin Amestoy sat down with reporter Ellis Juhlin to break down where NorthWestern’s plan fits into the new legal landscape.

A listener is curious about how glaciers are faring in the south end of the Mission Mountains, those big peaks you can see from Highway 93 on the Flathead Reservation. Learn more about them now, on The Big Why.

Montana regulators toured the state over the last few weeks to hear feedback from the public on the state’s cornerstone environmental law, the Montana Environmental Policy Act.

Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality has received federal funding to create a plan for addressing climate pollution. The plan will develop strategies to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions.

A new study finds that smoke from massive wildfires has eroded about a quarter of the air quality gains from the last few decades.

Summers in the Northern Rockies have historically been fairly temperate and most housing here wasn’t built with extreme heat in mind. As climate change heats up Montana’s summers, more Montanans need air conditioning. It’s a new expense that’s especially hard for people in low-income housing.