"Emergency responders and law enforcement officials in Nebraska’s Scotts Bluff County urged residents to evacuate as they worked to contain a large fire engulfing a state wildlife management area in the western county."
"Three pipeline projects are in early stages of planning in Iowa. An alliance of farmers, Indigenous groups and environmentalists wants to stop them".
"The Biden administration reversed a Trump administration position and upheld the Mandan, Hidatsa Arikara Nation's claim to mineral rights beneath the Missouri River within the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation."
"Nebraska has become the first Republican-dominated state to commit to a goal of net-zero electricity emissions by 2050."
"The vital Kansas ecosystem is rapidly shrinking. Its future depends on private landowners like Lorna Harder."
The Mississippi River and its tributaries drain more than 40% of the continent, but most coverage of environmental stories within the Mississippi Basin is localized and siloed. The recently launched Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk hopes to help news outlets provide region-wide reporting that contextualizes issues like climate change-driven flooding and the Gulf of Mexico dead zone.
"Mask mandates saved lives and prevented COVID-19 infections in Missouri’s biggest cities during the worst part of the delta variant wave, an analysis by the state Department of Health and Senior Services shows. But the analysis, conducted at the request of Gov. Mike Parson’s office in early November, was never made public and was only obtained by The Missouri Independent and the Documenting COVID-19 project after a Sunshine Law request to the department."
"Janis Elliott started testing the private well water that comes out of the faucets in her home for nitrates after she attended an environmental meeting more than five years ago. Elliott lives in the small unincorporated town of Avon, Iowa not too far south of Des Moines."
The history of environmental racism is a long one in the United States, far longer than the efforts to address the problem. But reporting on environmental justice continues to tick upwards, and an analysis in the latest Backgrounder points to promising progress, explaining why for journalists the year ahead may yield important stories, whether about future footholds or new missteps.
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