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A Search for Solutions

Home | KC's Changing Climate | A Search for Solutions

Flatland explores six monthly topics by highlighting local organizations pioneering solutions to the climate crisis.

Latest Story
A Search for Solutions

, News & Issues

Electric Vehicle Adoption Hinges on Better Access to Charging Stations

A Search for Solutions
Electric Vehicle Adoption Hinges on Better Access to Charging Stations
Beto Lugo-Martinez is a grassroots activist who advocates for clean air. A big part of his work is fighting the expansion of …
By Multiple Reporters
A Search for Solutions
Pondering the Business and Politics of Climate Change
Elon Musk, miffed, tweets that Exxon makes the top 10 list of businesses dealing with our climate crisis. His baby, Tesla, fa…
By Martin Rosenberg
A Search for Solutions
Climate Change Highlights Value of 19th Century Plan for ‘A City Within a Park’ 
More than a century ago, in the 1890s, Kansas City’s civic leaders hired landscape architect George Kessler to transform th…
By Mike Sherry
A Search for Solutions
Will Climate Change Prevent Me from Being a Parent? Millennials, Gen Z Question Adding More Children to the Earth
Naturally strong maternal instincts and having a small baby doll always in hand earned Angelica Chavez-Duckworth the childhoo…
By Multiple Reporters
A Search for Solutions
Missouri Senate Approves Eminent Domain Reform that Wouldn’t Kill Grain Belt Express
A years-long effort to halt development of a massive electrical transmission line across Missouri gave way early Thursday mor…
By Allison Kite
A Search for Solutions
Letting Lawns Grow Wild, Saving Bees During ‘No Mow May’
It’s Saturday morning. Time to lace up the grass-stained sneakers, fire up the lawnmower and destroy a prime food source an…
By Multiple Reporters
A Search for Solutions
Inflation, Energy Prices Complicate Consumer Calculus Regarding Renewables
Like many consumers, Kansas City resident Robyn Quiñones is looking to embrace renewable energy as her concerns about climat…
By Multiple Reporters
A Search for Solutions
If More Kansas Citians Rode the Bus by Choice, it Could Shift the Whole City's Mindset
Stephen Juza is about to buy a car. For the last few years, he’s taken the 519 from downtown — where he lives — to the …
By Gina Kaufmann, KCUR 89.3
A Search for Solutions
Here’s How Residents Along Troost Avenue Can Help Measure Kansas City Air Quality
To learn about Kansas City air quality, a collaboration is seeking local volunteers to place air sensors on their properties.…
By Madison Hopkins, The Beacon
A Search for Solutions
Not Everyone in Kansas City Drives a Car. This Man has Been Riding the Bus for 45 Years
Every weekday at 5:15 a.m., when it’s still dark out, Richard Heimer walks from his house on Drury Avenue to the bus stop a…
By Gina Kaufmann, KCUR 89.3
A Search for Solutions
'Ten Years to Save the Planet': Kansas City Metro's Small-town Mayors Take Up Climate Fight
The mayor of Smithville, Missouri, walks nearly everywhere. To the nearby elementary school with his daughter. To City Hall. …
By Barbara Shelly
climate
Price of Progress: Grain Belt Express Pits Public Benefit and Private Property Rights in Race Against Climate Change
Loren Sprouse drove through his hometown of Braymer, Missouri, and noted the height of each structure he passed. The water to…
By Multiple Reporters
A Search for Solutions
Can YOU Really Impact Climate Change?
Gigantic strides in controlling climate change occurred recently with the U.S. rejoining the Paris Accord and world leaders r…
By Brette Sember
A Search for Solutions
Fertilizer Washes off Midwest Farm Fields and Taints Communities’ Drinking Water, Poisons Gulf of Mexico
Located in the heart of America’s breadbasket, Champaign County, Illinois, helps feed the nation’s demand for corn and so…
By Ignacio Calderon
Kansas City International Airport
Sustainability Ambitions Soaring at KCI
About one year ahead of opening, Kansas City today ramped up efforts to make sure its new $1.5 billion airport will be among …
By Martin Rosenberg
A Search for Solutions
Accolades for Apartments Offer Latest Sign KC is an Emerging Energy Efficiency Mecca
One of the most energy efficient apartment complexes in the world minds its own business at Second and Delaware streets in Ka…
By Martin Rosenberg
A Search for Solutions
Kansas City Pursues Massive Solar Farm at KCI
Kansas City is considering putting a massive 2,000-acre solar farm on city land at Kansas City International Airport, creatin…
By Martin Rosenberg
A Search for Solutions
Kansas City Sustainability Projects Get Grants to Fight Food Waste
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $469,924 in grants to support three sustainability projects addressing …
By Clarence Dennis
A Search for Solutions
Kayaking to Cut Coal Fired Power Plants: 2,341 Miles Down the Missouri River
Part passion, part protest, Graham Jordison is paddling his kayak all 2,341 miles of the Missouri River, completely on his ow…
By Clarence Dennis
A Search for Solutions
Hunting for Hot Spots in Kansas City’s Climate
As Cleotis Wilder eased his Acura SUV out of a midtown parking lot, his wife, Brenette, exclaimed from the passenger seat,  
By Mike Sherry
A Search for Solutions
Missouri Finally Mining Untapped Potential With Move Toward Renewable Energy
After years spent lagging behind its neighbors in renewable energy production, Missouri may finally be on…
By Mark Ossolinski
A Search for Solutions
Environmental Camp About More Than Making S’mores
Outside of Anita Gorman B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center, a dozen Kansas City middle schoolers set cardboard boxes on …
By Cody Boston
KC Climate
Earth Day 2021: A Tree A Day Could Help Keep Climate Change At Bay
On a Saturday afternoon in the Fairlane neighborhood of Kansas City, Kate Fowler positions the base of a young American elm t…
By Cody Boston
clean energy
KC Ranks 25th Among 100 Cities on Clean Energy Scorecard
When it comes to the global fight against a looming climate crisis, cities have a lot of weight to pull. Due to the autonomy …
By Cody Boston
Climate
Good News on Climate Change: Most Americans Now Agree It’s Real, Even in the Midwest
Rising sea levels. An extraordinary inland hurricane ripping through the Corn Belt. Uncontrolled wildfires scorching the West…
By Jacob Douglas
Environment
Kansas City’s Regional Climate Change Effort Soldiers on Despite Pandemic
For decades, the biggest question about climate change in Kansas was a basic one: Are greenhouse gas emissions really changin…
By Karen Dillon
Climate
An Earth Day Like No Other
Even as the COVID-19 outbreak consumes the world’s attention, a coalition of activists are struggling to focus attention on…
By Cody Boston
Environment
Kansas City Activists Rally Against Climate Change
**EDIT: The text at :11 in our feature video declares the deadline needed for the elimination greenhouse gas emissions is 201…
By Cody Boston
Environment
Climate Change’s Serious Effects On Kansas Citians Disproportionately Affect The Poor
The discussion about climate change often centers around what increasingly extreme weather will mean for agriculture and the …
By Multiple Reporters