Celia Llopis-Jepsen
Reporter, Kansas News ServiceI'm the creator and host of the environmental podcast Up From Dust. I write about how the world is transforming around us, from topsoil loss and invasive species to climate change. My goal is to explain why these stories matter to Kansas, and to report on the farmers, ranchers, scientists and other engaged people working to make Kansas more resilient.
Before joining the Kansas News Service, I covered education and the Statehouse for the Topeka Capital-Journal.
I have a master's in journalism from Columbia University and a master’s in bilingualism studies from Stockholm University in Sweden. Before coming to Kansas, I spent a decade living and working in Sweden, Germany and Taiwan, including several cherished years working for the Taipei Times.
Email me at celia@kcur.org.
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A vast ocean of grass and wildflowers once covered one-third of North America. But that diverse prairie biome is collapsing, partly due to greenhouse gases and to our obsession with trees. Humans have unleashed an aggressive canopy that’s swallowing the Great Plains. For ranchers, saving the environment means being a tree killer — not a tree hugger.
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A juggernaut unleashed by humans is grinding slowly across the Great Plains, burying some of the most threatened habitat on the planet beneath dense junipers and shrubland.
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Determined high schoolers envision more sustainable and beautiful cityscapes. Experts say their approach can benefit both human health and the environment.
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Humans opened a Pandora’s box by moving plants, animals and fungi around the planet where they didn’t live before. Some of those species become so successful in their new surroundings that they crowd out others. Come along on a hunt for rogue Bradford pears, meet the teens turning cityscapes into butterfly havens and learn how to turn invasive plants into delicious food.
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Humans transport some non-native species on purpose. Others arrive by accident. The vast majority don’t hijack landscapes. But those that do come with high stakes.
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Trees are swallowing prairies. Bees are starving for food. Farmland is washing away in the rain. Humans broke the environment — but we can heal it, too. Up From Dust is a new podcast about the price of trying to shape the world around our needs, as seen from America’s breadbasket: Kansas. Hosts Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos wander across prairies, farm fields and suburbia to find the folks who are finding less damaging, more sustainable ways to fix our generational mistakes. Coming soon from the Kansas News Service, KCUR Studios, and the NPR Network.
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Kansas has three carbon dioxide pipelines. Next, it could get two carbon sequestration wells, linked to ethanol plants. Here’s what we know.
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Scientists say roosting monarchs took up 2.2 acres of Mexican fir forests this winter. That's the second smallest overwintering population on the books.
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The White House wants the aviation industry to switch to renewable fuel by 2050, but factories that produce it are rare.
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At least three states have banned these trees outright, and others discourage the public from adding them to their yards.