Living with it: Climate change effort shifts

Climate Change in Minnesota: An MPR News special report

A farmer in western Minnesota recently installed a new heating and cooling system to keep nearly a thousand sows eating and gaining weight during summers that have grown warmer.

The Minneapolis Health Department established a comprehensive heat-warning system that kicks in during heat waves to protect the vulnerable.

Leaders on the Fond du Lac Indian reservation near Duluth bought a seamless gutter machine after flooding in 2012 with the aim of directing water away from houses during increasingly heavy rains.

Minnesotans have taken a variety of steps that deal with climate change. But, as in each of these instances, those steps often deal less with reducing carbon emissions than with adapting to change that already has arrived in Minnesota.

That's new.

While the argument rages globally over how to reduce the pollution that has generated climate change, individuals and communities have quietly begun embarking upon the practical business of dealing with it, whether or not they call it climate change.

Minnesota is warming faster than the nation as a whole, according to a recent analysis by the non-profit Climate Central. And the character of the rain it receives has changed - more precipitation falls overall and more of it falls in big storms.

Minnesota lawmakers took note as early as 2007, when they passed the Next Generation Energy Act to set renewable energy and conservation goals. It and many other local efforts around climate change have focused on so-called "mitigation" the reduction of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

Cities and counties across the state have mounted solar panels on public buildings and replaced old, inefficient boilers and lighting systems with new ones. Schools and homeowners have installed efficient doors and windows and sent tons of would-be trash to recycling bins.

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Living with it: Climate change effort shifts