Articles Tagged: Iowa Journalism Lab

The facility’s retirement, scheduled for the end of the year, brings Alliant Energy one step closer to achieving its renewable energy goals.

This marks the first time the DNR has proposed to withdraw such a plan.

States across the Mississippi River basin are experiencing drought more commonly found in the arid Southwest, federal data show. The dryness has disrupted agriculture, beached barges and upset ecosystems across large swaths of the Midwest, Great Plains and beyond, in epic proportions — even as the region also sees climate change-induced increases in rainfall.

Summit executive, University of Iowa engineering professor and pipeline safety expert discuss carbon sequestration at an Iowa Ideas panel

Farmers’ adaptations to increased rainfall are changing how water moves across the landscape

As rainfall has increased — a symptom of our warming atmosphere — the frequency of flooding has intensified. Now, river-adjacent communities like Cedar Rapids are turning away from flood mitigation to instead make room for the water.

After floods hammered St. Louis and eastern Kentucky this summer, the Ag & Water Desk wanted to know: Is rainfall increasing in the Mississippi River basin? Here’s how we reported it.

A journalism partnership of more than 14 newsrooms — including The Gazette — asked climate scientists to analyze 50 years of rainfall patterns. They found that some parts of the U.S. now receive up to 8 more inches of rain each year than they did 50 years ago.

The report focuses only on releases from industry - not farm and animal feeding operations, which exacerbate the pollution problem.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture spent $7.4 billion in payments to farmers between 2017 and 2020 through two of its biggest conservation programs, but very little of that money went to practices that help fight climate change, according to a report from the Environmental Working Group.

Two decades of bacteria and algae have plagued Iowa beaches, leading to constant warnings. The Gazette and Investigate Midwest analyzed 20 years of beach monitoring data from the Iowa DNR. The results show that although individual locations show some progress, Iowa’s beaches overall show little to no improvement.

Researchers find the barriers can remove nutrients from waterways

The Gazette toured Alliant’s English Farms Wind Farm to learn more about wind energy

A secretive group of large energy users -- which could include social media data centers, food processors, manufacturing plants and cryptocurrency mining sites -- said they should be able to buy electricity on the open market rather than from Iowa utilities

A White House program has promised that 40 percent of climate-related funding will go toward historically disadvantaged communities, including low-income communities and communities of color. But will it actually get into the right hands? And how will it be used?