This year, HELCOM celebrates its 50th anniversary. Rüdiger Strempel, the Executive Secretary of HELCOM, is here presenting the close cooperation and alignment between HELCOM and the European Union in working against a backdrop of increasing environmental threats due to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution on the one hand and geopolitical instability on the other hand.
By
Rüdiger Strempel
September 18, 2024
Fyrar runt Östersjön. [Lighthouses around the Baltic Sea] Magnus Rietz, (Stockholm: Lind & Co, 2019), 415 pages
By
Manne Wängborg
October 25, 2021
Die Ostsee. Berichte und Geschichten aus 2000 Jahren. Klaus-Jürgen Liedtke (ed.) Berlin: Galiani Verlag 2018, 650 pages.
By
Clas Zilliacus
March 26, 2019
Christer Lokind: DC-3:an. Kalla krigets hemlighet [The DC-3: the secret of the Cold War]. Stockholm: Medströms bokförlag, 2014.
By
Thomas Lundén
May 13, 2015
After many years of searching, divers from Ocean Discovery in Västervik found the wreck of Erik XIV’s legendary flagship Mars, in 2011. In 2013 archeologists joined together to reconstruct a cross-section of the battle space. To this end, a selection of ship timbers were salvaged for detailed documentation on the surface.
By
Johan Rönnby
November 7, 2013
A new treatment plant in St. Petersburg could eventually be built, despite initial resistance. It is the outcome of a successful joint project, funded by the Nordic Council and the EU. St. Petersburg's water consumption has also decreased significantly. A challenge remains for St. Petersburg; getting neighboring cities to clean their drains. Not many mil away waste flows directly into the Baltic Sea.
By
Ann-Louise Martin
November 7, 2013
Grass’s Flounder contributes to our work of locating, dislocating, and relocating literature in the Baltic Sea region by challenging us to give attention to the lost or hidden stories that are ignored or played off against each other in the official versions of history that would fix our position in space. While Grass counters the seduction of the big story — universal history — he also reveals himself by getting caught in the contradiction of his own storytelling.
By
Kenneth J. Knoespel
May 14, 2013
Will the Baltic be sick or healthy in 2030? The World Wildlife Fund addressed the future of the sea in a seminar at this year’s Baltic Sea Festival.
By
Per Eklöf
September 28, 2012
Even though the sea is characterized by its transgression of all borders, the founding of Sealand has shown that one can transform the sea into some sort of land, into Sea-Land. Because the sea is dislocated, one can set up a location. Because it is not the realm of defined territories, one can declare part of it as a territory and thereby align it with the land and the terrestrial idea of a state. But if one does, it is no longer “sea” in the strong sense of the word,1 but rather a symbolic aggradation of the sea — just sealand.
Essay by
Sven Rücker
June 27, 2012
Scientists have not always agreed on either the causes or the possibility of restoring the cloudy, fish-poor, partially oxygen-deficient, algae-blooming, oil-slicked Baltic Sea.
Wherein lies the disagreement? There seem to be two main controversies:
1. The Baltic Sea is eutrophic. Or is the Baltic Sea not eutrophic?
2. Algae blooms are controlled by the nutrient phosphorus. Or is the bloom controlled by both phosphorus and nitrogen?
By
Ann-Louise Martin
October 3, 2011