Today is Earth Day! In case you don’t remember, last year, Minnesota Republicans celebrated this day -dedicated to environmental protection and awareness- by denying that climate change exists and is caused by humans.

In the wake of Prince’s death you may have reached your fill of depressing news, but if you haven’t, Republicans also attempted to roll back environmental protections, blocked the Toxic Free Kids Act, and showed general preference (as usual) for corporate special interests instead of other priorities like the environment.

The good news is that Governor Dayton and the DFL controlled Senate generally fall on the side of science in acknowledging climate change.

This session, Governor Dayton is prioritizing improving and protecting water quality, and in 2013 the DFL led legislature and Governor Dayton passed a groundbreaking solar energy standard to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

So while Republicans (at least 99% of them in the House) cast a dark cloud over Earth Day with their climate change denial last year, the silver lining is that Governor Dayton and Minnesota Democrats are doing what they can to protect our natural resources, both for those of us who accept science, and for future generations.