skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, July 14, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

9 dead, more than 30 injured in MA fire at Fall River senior living facility; West Virginia's health care system strained further under GOP bill; EV incentives will quickly expire. What happens next? NC university considers the future of AI in classrooms.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

FEMA's Texas flood response gets more criticism for unanswered calls. Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego-Garcia want guidance about a potential second deportation. And new polls show not as many Americans are worried about the state of democracy.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural Americans brace for disproportionate impact of federal funding cuts to mental health, substance use programs, and new federal policies have farmers from Ohio to Minnesota struggling to grow healthier foods and create sustainable food production programs.

NC Land Conservancies Unify to Fight Climate Change

play audio
Play

Thursday, October 25, 2018   

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Climate change is top of mind after extreme weather events such as Hurricanes Florence and Michael, and North Carolina's land trusts have a significant role to play.

The latest climate science – from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – underscores the importance of natural areas such as forests and working farmlands in the fight against climate change, especially in protecting those places that have the ability to absorb carbon dioxide emissions.

Elsea Brown, is director of the Blue Ridge Forever Coalition, a collective campaign led by local land trusts and national conservation organizations. The group has worked to protect more than 40,000 acres of land.

"We're kind of in a unique position in that it's our responsibility to steward and protect the natural areas that are going to allow humans to be more prepared for the effects that we are going to see," she states.

Advocates hope climate solutions will include broad involvement across for-profit, nonprofit and civil sectors.

Without major changes, IPCC scientists warn that by the end of the century the average global temperature will be around 5.8 degrees warmer with the climbing carbon footprint.

For land trusts such as the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, climate change data has helped the organization plan with a long-term lens.

"Before we started using climate change data, we were looking at what land is most important to protect today," says Michelle Pugliese, the conservancy’s land protection director.

Now, with the new data, Pugliese says the conservancy is looking at what land is most important to protect long into the future.

Scientists and advocates alike say conservation goes beyond partisan politics. Brown calls it a unifying cause.

"Conservation is really something that can bring people together,” she states. “We all care about having a healthy environment and having clean air and clean water and healthy food for ourselves and for our families. It's really not something that belongs to one party or the other."

This month, an international panel of scientists released its sixth report on climate change with data affirming that natural areas reduce our carbon footprint.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Research shows when federal funding for Medicaid decreases, states tend to cut optional benefits, such as home- and community-based services, first. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A Wisconsin nonprofit serving people with disabilities is waiting to hear if federal changes to Medicaid will affect their clients and caregivers…


play sound

By Ilana Newman for The Daily Yonder.Broadcast version by Eric Galatas for Colorado News Connection for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collabora…

Health and Wellness

play sound

Nearly 1,000 New Mexicans have already accessed a new online portal which provides transparency about how much the cost of prescriptions and medical p…


The Indiana Commission on Higher Education says almost 268,000 students enrolled in at least one funded Career and Technical Education course for the 2023-2024 school year. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Uncertainty about the current job market is influencing high school graduates' choices for a career. Parents are generally the go-to for guidance…

Social Issues

play sound

The mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania is voicing concerns about the state budget delay, warning it could affect the city's more than 58,000 residents…

The Feeding Texas network said despite federal cuts, the organization stands united in its commitment to fight hunger but food banks cannot fill the gap left by the cuts. (Studio Romantic/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 3.5 million Texans utilize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to purchase food. The budget reconciliation bill recently signed …

Environment

play sound

A new documentary looked at ways to reduce the human and environmental harms stemming from the mining of "critical minerals." Without minerals like c…

Environment

play sound

Wisconsin's agriculture industry could see both wins and losses under the new federal budget. Climate change isn't a priority for the Trump …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021