Mississippi River

Climate change means communities along the Mississippi River are experiencing longer and higher floods in springtime, flash flooding from heavy rains, as well as prolonged droughts. Now cities along the river are turning to each other for solutions.

Back-to-back years of drought have left the Mississippi River's water levels low. It's part of more frequent extremes on the river, which affects the barge industry and farmers who need to ship their grain.

The transportation sector accounts for about 28% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Barge shipping could help reduce that output, but there’s not a full picture of how carbon efficient that transportation mode really is.

It’s a newer consideration for environmentalists, who previously thought that river systems were relatively benign and don’t contribute many greenhouse gas emissions.

A growing legal movement to grant natural entities like rivers and forests legal rights is gaining traction in the U.S., and environmentalists are now setting their sights on the Mississippi River.

A 2019 Agribusiness Consulting report found that in 2017, more than half of boats and barges on the Mississippi River were delayed at locks and dams, up from about one in five in 2000.

After rising for weeks, the Mississippi River reached its peak over the weekend in parts of southwest Wisconsin and northeast Iowa. It crested at midday Monday in Davenport and Bettendorf and across the river in Illinois at Rock Island and Moline.

States in the Midwest and South have already seen many deadly tornadoes so far this year. These parts of the country are also where the number of severe events are steadily increasing.

A bill that would deny food assistance to some Iowa households is on its way to Gov. Kim Reynold's desk.

A new report from the Environmental Working Group found targeting the U.S. Department of Agriculture's conservation funding to the Mississippi River region would have huge benefits to water quality and the climate.