environmentalism

As part of its sweeping green infrastructure plan, Kansas City is transitioning to LED streetlights. The new bulbs are more efficient, last longer and reduce carbon emissions. But environmentalists say that the real solution to reducing carbon pollution is to shut down the coal-fired power plant that provides energy to Kansas City.

In Kansas City, the federal sustainability funds could help boost composting efforts, add bike trails, plant more trees, expand electric vehicle charging, and tackle energy efficiency projects.

Fifty-four years after the first annual Earth Day, many people are making environmental sustainability their business. KCUR's Up To Date spoke with Kansas Citians whose livelihood is saving the planet.

Kansas News Service environmental reporter Celia Llopis-Jepsen spent two years researching and reporting the first episode of Up From Dust. The newly launched podcast tells the stories of the Kansans who are addressing environmental crises.

Local documentary filmmaker Dave Kendall produced "Hot Times in the Heartland" with his company, Prairie Hollow Productions. The film is a comprehensive look at how the climate crisis is impacting the Kansas City region and how local changemakers are working to counter it.

MO Hives KC has 10 Kansas City locations that facilitate bee pollination for neighborhood gardens as well as a small apiary at Gov. Mike Parson’s residence.

People in the agriculture industry are still looking for local solutions to save what is left of the Ogallala aquifer that supports western Kansas. But systemic challenges are making it a slow effort.

Elizabeth Kolbert, the Pulitzer-winning author of "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" and a staff writer for The New Yorker, says there are no easy choices when it comes to dealing with water shortages in Kansas, but changes are necessary. Kolbert will speak at the Linda Hall library Tuesday, Feb. 13.

In Missouri, agriculture, urban development and man-made flood control measures have replaced 87% of the state’s original wetlands.

Nurseries or nursery dealers that buy, sell or propagate the plants would have their certificate suspended by the Department of Agriculture. Experts say the plants threaten Missouri’s native ecosystems because they can escape cultivation and don’t have natural competitors to slow their spread.

Foster youth are more likely to be unemployed, food insecure or homeless. They're the focus of an EPA grant program with a specific goal of training a workforce capable of cleaning up polluted brownfield sites — unused, polluted plots of land.

"A Survey of Elemental Gratitude," an exhibition currently at the Kansas City Public Library, showcases the beauty of the Flint Hills— and asks us to consider its environmental future. Philip Heying's photography will be on display until December 9.