Climate change could diminish North American water supplies and trigger disputes between the United States and Canada over water reserves already stressed by industry and agriculture, U.N. experts said Wednesday.

Three hundred lobsters have a new lease on life thanks to an anonymous group that secured their release in Maine. The episode unfolded in the midst of a lobster shortage and record prices when a group of 10 young people arrived at New Meadows Lobster Pound talking about the need for "God's creatures" to be free.

The White House Wednesday withdrew its choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency's air pollution office after he ran afoul of key U.S. lawmakers. William Wehrum, nominated to head the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, was the architect of rules to regulate harmful power plant emissions that environmental groups and many Democrats blasted as too lenient.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told environmentalists Wednesday they needed to stop nagging and make their cause sexy, likening it to bodybuilding's evolution from a weird pursuit to mainstream.

The Swedish government said Wednesday it will earmark around 500 million kronor (euro54 million; US$72 million) over three years to help restore damaged Baltic and North sea environments.

NBC News correspondent Anne Thompson has been appointed the network's new environmental affairs reporter, a job she attributes in part to her battle with breast cancer. She felt the environment is an issue foremost on people's minds that had not been covered extensively on network television.

Toronto bylaws requiring dog walkers to "stoop and scoop" are yielding an unmanageable amount of poop in park trash bins. An auditor's report this week showed that up to 27 per cent of all garbage collected from city parks is pet poop.

The Army, thwarted in two previous bids to dispose of chemical waste from the destruction of a deadly VX nerve agent stockpile, has contracted with a French company to incinerate the waste at a Texas plant, but environmentalists said they will fight that effort as well.

New York City produces nearly 1 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions -- an amount that puts it on par with Ireland and Portugal -- according to a city study.

The United States announced new standards for renewable fuels for cars and trucks Tuesday, but stopped short of committing to regulate greenhouse gases that spur global warming.

A large U.S. seafood distributor is drawing pressure from anti-whaling activists after an agreement to distribute frozen sushi from Japan's Kyokuyo Co. Ltd.

The former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate is spearheading efforts to get the world of pop music to back his crusade to avert what he calls a "planetary emergency", and already has Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on board.

ConocoPhillips has joined several other major corporations urging Congress to require limits on greenhouse gases tied to global warming, the first major U.S. oil company to take such a stance.

India's robust economic growth will put unprecedented pressures on its land, water, air, soil and forestry resources, a World Bank report said on Tuesday. India's economy has grown more than 8 percent annually in the past two years, with manufacturing and services leading growth.

Chicago and Los Angeles will likely to face increasing heat waves. Severe storm surges could hit New York and Boston. And cities that rely on melting snow for water may run into serious shortages.

A Vermont rule reducing greenhouse gas emissions is so strict that adhering to it would be a "financial disaster" for General Motors, an executive with the U.S. automaker testified in a lawsuit Tuesday.