climate change

2022 was full of weather extremes in Montana, from late-season snowstorms and historic flooding in Yellowstone to lengthy heatwaves and a record-setting December deep-freeze.

Montana could lose as much as 35 percent of its cold-water trout habitat by 2080, a new study says.

Montana broke multiple daily temperature records this summer, according to the National Weather Service, with many parts of the state seeing more days over 90 and 100 degrees every year due to climate change. Cathy Whitlock, an MSU professor and lead author of the Montana Climate Assessment, says Montanans, especially those in rural areas, may not be prepared for these temperatures because most have historically lived without air conditioning.

Montana Democrats amended their platform last weekend to make clear their priorities for the next legislative session. MTPR's Shaylee Ragar and YPR's Ellis Juhlin explain what’s top of mind for Democrats ahead of the November election.

For decades, it was impossible to say that a specific weather event was caused, or even made worse, by climate change. But advanced research methods are changing that.

President Biden announced his conservation goal to address climate change shortly after taking office. Earlier this year, he rolled out several executive orders related to it, including a pause on new oil and gas leases on public land.

The megadrought bedeviling the American West got even drier last year and is becoming the deepest dry spell in more than 1,200 years. Monday's study says the megadrought is now the worst-case scenario officials and scientists worried about in the 1900s. The drought deepened so much in 2021 that it is 5% worse than the old record in the late 1500s. They calculate that 42% of this drought is due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels.

Sixteen youth plaintiffs are suing the state of Montana for their right to access a clean and healthful environment in a case scheduled to go to trial next year.

The ruling revokes leases sold in the Gulf of Mexico in the largest oil and gas lease sale in U.S. history. It says the Interior Department failed to consider the greenhouse gases it would produce.

As climate change heats up and dries out the West, administration officials said they have crafted a $50 billion plan to more than double the use of controlled fires and logging to reduce trees and other vegetation that serves as tinder in the most at-risk areas.