Sweden's environment minister called yesterday for nuclear and coal power to be phased out of the Baltic Sea region and announced that Sweden wants to be a world leader in developing sources of renewable energy. Kjell Larsson, who spoke at a meeting in Lithuania on the closure of the Chernobyl-style Ignalina nuclear power plant, gave no details on how Sweden might implement such a phaseout. Sweden now has 11 nuclear reactors that supply 48 percent of the nation's energy, with the rest coming primarily from hydropower and renewable sources like sun, wind, and biomass. The German government reached an agreement …

The federal government yesterday released a new set of rules for the Pacific Northwest that prohibit harming threatened or endangered salmon and steelhead populations and the rivers and streams where they live. Still, the rules do not specify what activities are forbidden and do not require efforts to restore fish runs to their former healthy states. The National Marine Fisheries Service is encouraging local governments to come up with their own plans to protect the salmon and steelhead, which the agency will review and decide whether to approve. If people follow approved local rules, they won't be subject to civil …

Arnold, Calif., a longtime logging town, is turning against the industry that supported it for decades. A number of residents are opposing a plan by Sierra Pacific Industries to clear-cut a nearby area, fearing that it would damage the town's burgeoning tourism industry, not to mention the area's water supply "People come here for the trees," says Erin Ross, a fifth-generation Arnold resident and businesswoman. "If they're not finding trees ... they're going to go someplace else." The locals say they wouldn't oppose selective logging, but Sierra Pacific is bent on clear-cutting.

Sales of organic foods in the U.K. are expected to be five times higher in 2000 than in 1996, compared to a doubling of U.S. organic food sales during the same period. Why the surge in Britain? Opposition to genetically modified ingredients, now common in nonorganic foods, has been widespread and strident in Britain, pushing organics so much into the limelight that 70 to 80 percent of sales have occurred in conventional supermarkets. Observers also surmise that organic foods in the U.K. have been helped along by a supportive press, historic connections to the land, the high profile of vegetarianism …

Richard A. French, a specialist in animal disease at the University of Connecticut, often comes to work wearing a lobster tie tack he bought at a shellfish conference. He's had lobsters on the brain lately, particularly the mystery of why hundreds of thousands of lobsters have died within the last year in Long Island Sound. In a sea of troubles. Photo: OAR/NURP. In the western end of the Sound, which separates Connecticut from Long Island's north shore, lobster landings went from historic highs in late 1997 to a nearly collapsed stock two years later. Beginning in the fall of 1999, …

Some Koreans are hoping that the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea will be turned into a nature preserve. The 155-mile-long DMZ -- laced with landmines, razor wire, and chain-link fence -- has been cut off from human interference for nearly half a century, so many plants and animals are thriving there, including some endangered species. Military borders in other regions have been turned into "peace parks" to promote reconciliation -- Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia share such an reserve, as do Nicaragua and Costa Rica. But the reserve plan will have to compete with proposals from South Korean …

German-American automaker DaimlerChrysler AG announced yesterday that it intends to invest about $1 billion in fuel-cell technology and become the first major auto manufacturer to market fuel-cell vehicles. By 2002, the company plans to produce buses equipped with fuel cells, and by 2004 it will sell fuel-cell cars. Meanwhile, Japanese scientists report in the new issue of the journal Science that they have developed a prototype fuel cell that can operate at much lower temperatures than most fuel cells, an advance that may make fuel-cell technology more viable.

Environmentalists in Ghana are working to establish six sanctuaries for giant sea turtles along the country's Atlantic coast, and they hope the refuges will attract eco-tourists. The Ghana Wildlife Society and other groups aim to raise some $20,000 to protect beaches where hundreds of sea turtles lay eggs between August and March. The turtles, which can weigh up to 440 pounds and live for more than 100 years, swim thousands of miles out to sea, but the females return to their native beaches to nest. Enviros estimate that at least two-thirds of the turtles that return to Ghana are now …

New York would become the first state in which counties could require homeowners to post warning flags alerting neighbors when they use pesticides on their lawns, under an agreement reached yesterday by Republican and Democratic leaders in the New York legislature. The measure would also mandate that parents be given notice 48 hours before spraying occurred at schools and day-care centers and it would give counties the option of requiring commercial lawn care companies to warn neighbors in writing 48 hours before spraying began. The agreement came days after state Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer (D) released a report showing …

Once again, conservative members of Congress, egged on by the business community, are hoping to tag legislative riders to funding bills to stop the Clinton administration from implementing new environmental regulations. The administration, for its part, is trying to make environmental proposals permanent before a new president takes office. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants to stop the EPA from implementing the Kyoto climate change treaty; enforcing environmental justice guidelines in poor and minority neighborhoods; and setting tougher pollution limits for the nation's waterways.