What was once seen as progress to modernity and civilization through industry and transportation is now widely understood as a major driver of rising global temperatures and environmental instability. As climate change becomes more visible in everyday life, public health advocates, researchers, entrepreneurs and institutional leaders argue for change.

From AI-driven innovation to campus zero-waste efforts, concerned individuals at the University of Minnesota and beyond are pushing for sustainable solutions.

Impact of climate change

Over the decades, climate change has affected the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide through drought, raising sea levels and wildfires. Global sea levels have risen by about 97 millimeters, or nearly 4 inches, since 1993, and NASA reported in 2025 that the rate of sea level rise has doubled over the past 30 years. In the United States alone, NCEI  said 2023 had 28 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, including the Hawaii firestorm and Hurricane Idalia.

The average temperature in Minnesota has increased by 3.1 degrees Fahrenheit from 1895 to 2023, while average winter low temperatures have increased by 5.8 degrees Fahrenheit in the same period, according to the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership.

“Minnesota, like every other state, is going to experience more extreme weather, now as well as into the future,” Jesse Berman, an associate professor in the School of Public Health and an Environmental epidemiologist, said. “That can mean different things; it could mean more flooding conditions, drought, heat waves, wildfire or smoke events. There’s a range of extreme environmental impacts.”

As these effects become more severe and common, climate change is no longer a distant problem but a present global crisis.

Wildfire crises

Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of wildfires, as it heats up the Earth and dries vegetation. Minnesota experiences 800-1,000 wildfires per year, with more than 70,000 wildfires occurring yearly nationwide, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Berman said wildfire smoke is one of the main climate risks Minnesota faces most often, and noted that smoke can travel from hundreds or even thousands of miles away and still affect people locally. In 2025, thousands of Minnesotans were told to stay indoors to avoid wildfire smoke originating from Canada.

“Wildfire smoke can also be transmitted very large distances,” he said. “These wildfire smoke events that are actually being driven by wildfires [are] occurring 100 or if not 1000 of miles away in northern Canada.”

A recent study found long-term exposure to wildfire smoke is linked to a large number of U.S. deaths, with PM2.5 exposure associated with about 24,100 deaths per year. PM2.5 is a type of small air pollution particle that can be inhaled deep into the lungs and cause health problems like breathing and heart complications.

Jiarong Hong, a University of Minnesota mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering professor, emphasized the danger of this particle suspension.

“The impact of smoke goes beyond just where it starts because of small particles. … They can be kept suspended in the air for a very long period of time … and can be moving hundreds of kilometers away from where it was generated,” Hong said.

Berman said there are high risks for vulnerable groups, like those with pre-existing conditions.

“When we think about vulnerable populations, we can often include older adults, very young children, people with existing diseases, such as those with asthma or maybe COPD, or those who have had, you know, heart conditions in the past,” Berman said. “These are the vulnerable populations that we want to, you know, protect the most.”

Berman added that vulnerability goes beyond traditional categories. Outdoor workers, such as farmers or police officers, may face increased exposure to wildfire smoke and heat, showing that even otherwise healthy people can be at risk.

Wildfire drones and AI-powered waste bins

As climate change increases wildfire intensity, University of Minnesota researchers are using artificial intelligence to track smoke and its atmospheric movement.

Hong is a part of a team developing autonomous drone systems designed to detect smoke and measure how particles spread in real time. He said the project began as a way to solve a major gap in current monitoring systems.

Traditional tools like satellites and fixed weather towers only capture parts of the picture.

“Right now, there are very limited tools to understand, you know, record, and quantify these events,” Hong said. “It’s hard to track the dynamic events like wildfire, you know, that happens and changing very quickly and needs very high resolution, both spatially and temporally, to capture the spread of such events.”

To address that problem, Hong’s team developed a swarm of drones equipped with cameras and sensors that move through smoke plumes and collect detailed information about particle size and movement. The system uses AI and computer vision to tell whether what the drone is seeing is actually smoke, and respond immediately if so.

“We also have the AI tools and deep learning tools, which allow us to be able to analyze the images recorded by the camera to really determine whether that’s smoke or something else,” Hong said. “If it’s smoke, the drone is able to follow, continue following the smoke.”

Hong said the technology could eventually help both scientists and emergency officials make faster and more informed decisions during wildfire events. He added that the current process often requires people to confirm signs of smoke, sometimes through planes or other aircraft, before that information is sent back to decision-makers.

“The faster you can make a decision, it makes a huge difference in terms of mitigation strategies and the way you can confine the smoke,” Hong said.

Artificial intelligence is also being used in other climate-related areas beyond wildfire monitoring. Kiril Gantchev, CEO and co-founder of Ameru,, said his company uses AI-powered waste bins to automatically identify and sort waste into different categories.

“The goal would be to stop humans from contaminating the waste,” Gantchev said. “In order to do that, we have to have something that sorts the waste instead of humans.”

Gantchev’s AI-powered waste bins can classify more than 100 types of waste based on material, object type and condition, which helps improve how much waste is diverted away from landfills. Controlling what ends up in landfills can potentially reduce contamination, improve diversion and cut down on landfill waste.

Landfills are major climate pollutants that account for about 14% of methane emissions in 2022, according to the EPA. This potent greenhouse gas is 28-48 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat, making it an increasing threat to environmental sustainability.

The technology can make a measurable difference, according to Gantchev. He said many airports and other large facilities have diversion rates below 5%, but deploying AI sorting bins can raise that to over 50%.

University actions

University of Minnesota climate action is taking shape through campus sustainability and waste reduction efforts. Kate Nelson, University director of campus sustainability for the Twin Cities campus, said the University’s climate goals include deeper emissions cuts and long-term resilience planning.

Campus recycling coordinator Ahnika Seifert said the Twin Cities campus is currently at a 52% recycling and composting rate, with 31% recycled, 17% composted and 4% reused out of roughly 19 million pounds of waste managed each year.

Seifert said one of the biggest challenges is not always infrastructure, but human behavior and contamination. Waste audits show that much of what ends up in the trash could have been composted or recycled instead.

Nelson said sustainability progress on campus depends on both institutional systems and everyday choices from students, faculty and staff.

Arwa Alakech, a student at the University, said the University has made a lot of positive impacts on sustainability and has done a good job listening to students’ concerns.

“The University itself has a lot of great sustainability initiatives, and the zero-waste plan was developed because Students for Climate Justice were upset that their trash was going to the HERC,” Alakech said. “They brought those concerns to the sustainability office, which then worked with them to create the initiative.”

Minnesota weather whiplash

Minnesotans are used to unpredictable weather, but climate experts say long-term data show the state is warming and experiencing broader shifts in temperature and precipitation.

State climatologist Kenneth Blumenfeld said Minnesota has warmed about four degrees Fahrenheit over 100 years, but the vast majority of that has occurred in the last five and a half decades.

According to the Climate Adaptation Partnership website, Minnesota will see an increase in temperature by about 3.8-4.5 degrees Fahrenheit and average annual precipitation rising to 1.2 inches. Blumenfeld said that although these numbers are small, they are still impactful.

“Minnesota is 85,000 square miles. If you spread an extra inch of precipitation across 85,000 square miles, that’s billions of gallons of water,” Blumenfeld said. “What seems like a small change actually means billions of extra gallons of water falling onto the state in a typical year that didn’t used to fall.”

Blumenfeld said these changes are not happening evenly across the state, with northern Minnesota warming faster than the south. He attributed that difference in part to longer winters and longer nights, which give greenhouse gases more opportunity to trap heat.

“We know we’ll keep getting warmer, and because the heavy precipitation appears to be connected to the same phenomenon — there’s more moisture in the air, and that humidity helps fuel the rains — it does seem like the really wet periods will continue increasing,” Blumenfeld said.

He explained Minnesota is a variable state that experiences extreme fluctuations in seasons, but the random swings will likely get more extreme as the planet warms.

Changing norms

Minnesotans may be used to snowfall one weekend to sunshine the next, but climatologists say those swings are part of a broader pattern of change that is becoming harder to ignore.

Blumenfeld said the consequences of climate change extend beyond human comfort or convenience. and these changes will also affect plants, animals and ecosystems that are already near the limits of what they can tolerate.

Those ecological changes will eventually affect people too, reshaping landscapes, industries and daily life across the state, according to Blumenfeld.

Blumenfeld added that Minnesota’s climate change will not mean the disappearance of winter altogether. Instead, it will mean a state where familiar seasons remain, but the boundaries of what counts as normal continue to shift.

“There will still be winter. It will still be the cold and dark time of year. It will still snow sometimes,” Blumenfeld said. “Things that seem extremely cold now may be almost unheard of in the future. Things that seem extremely warm now will probably be more common in the future.”

Blumenfeld said we are not on track to fix this problem, and the longer people go without making changes, the more risk we invite in.

Berman said students should not lose sight of what is at stake, especially as younger generations will live with the consequences of today’s inaction more than those in current power.

“Students are the ones who are going to be impacted by it,” Berman said. “Your children will be impacted by it, and your grandchildren even more. I just hope all of you keep that recognition and keep that enthusiasm, because it’s going to be incredibly important.”

This story was originally published on Minnesota Daily on April 24, 2026.