Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) reports that today it’s the tourists in Iceland that are consuming much of the whale meat. In fact, 35 to 40 percent of minke whale meat is eaten by tourists.

According to the organization, tourists are propping up the commercial whaling industry:

For [tourists] it’s probably just one of those things they ‘have’ to try while they’re over there; when in Rome, and all that… the irony is that fewer and fewer residents of the country are choosing to eat whale meat now

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And most recently came the launch of Whale Watching With Whalers. According to Whaler, this is what the trip entails:

• see and hear shot from our harpoon

• taste our grilled and raw whalemeat

• see minke whale and other commonly seen whales

• see our showroom, witch takes you through the history of whaling in Iceland

• see internal organs of the minke whale

The idea that anyone would want to see such a gruesome, painful, bloody travesty is mind boggling. These are gorgeous animals killed in a completely inhumane way. What’s worse, whale meat is showing up on more and more plates in Iceland. Today over 100 restaurants in Iceland serve it up.

Minke whales are the smallest of the baleen whales and the only one that can leap all the way out of the water and reenter like a dolphin. Their numbers are 149,000 in the North Atlantic, 25,000 in the northwest Pacific and Okhotsk sea but there is no clear listing of their numbers in the Southern Hemisphere, according to the International Whaling Commission.

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More on Whaling
Iceland Calls the Whale Thing Off
International Whaling ‘Peace Plan’ Moving Forward
Japan Accused of Bribing Nations to be Pro-Whaling

Studio Swine is using human hair as the main ingredient in their chic eyeglasses instead of petroleum-based, energy-intensive wire and plastic frames.

According to Eccouterre:

Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves’ aptly named “hair glasses,” however, tap into a readily available and renewable resource: the millions of pounds of hair cuttings that salons across the United Kingdom throw away each year.

The glasses contain hair and bioresin and are 100 percent biodegradable at the end of their life. The glasses are currently on exhibit at RCA in London.

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More on Eyeglasses
Ask Pablo: What Is More Sustainable: Eyeglasses Or Contact Lenses?
Modo Breaks Out New, 95% Recycled Eyewear. But Are We Impressed?
Upcycled Eyewear Bridges the Conversation Gap

According to Reuters:

The most poisonous shellfish discovered were baby mussels at a dock in Ketchikan with toxin levels of more than 30,000 micrograms per hundred grams of shellfish meat. This is well over the 80-microgram level considered toxic, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services has warned.

Those levels are so high that a single mussel could kill several people, scientists at the University of Alaska Southeast said in a statement on Thursday.

Warnings about the deadly toxin have been posted throughout the area on beaches, docks, and in area stores. Symptoms of the disease start with tingling in the mouth which then spreads to the rest of the body.

“If it gets to your lungs, it shuts them down,” said Greg Wilkinson, a spokesman for the state health department. Commercially caught fish are tested for the toxin by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation before hitting the market but the toxin is a huge scare for those that catch their own shellfish. Two people have already been hospitalized due to the toxin.

The toxin is due to the proliferation of a certain form of algae. Harmful algae blooms can be caused by coastal pollution from human sewage and agricultural runoff though it’s unclear the cause of this bloom.

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More on Toxic Algae Blooms
Ocean Iron Fertilization Could Stimulate Toxic Algae Blooms in Open Ocean
Blue Water Satellite Scans Toxic Algae Blooms From Space
Massive Algae Bloom Spreading Across Baltic Sea

“Children who play outside have a reduced risk for obesity, lower stress levels, more active imaginations and they’re more likely to become environmentally conscious adults.” The DiscoverTheForest.org (and the new Spanish version, DescubreElBosque.org) Web sites help parents and kids search for nearby forests and activities to do at them.

Photo: Ad Council

“Parents play an important role in encouraging children to get outside in nature,” said Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. “Our campaign with the Ad Council aims to re-connect families to nature by encouraging them to break free from their daily routines and experience the forest first hand. This gives families the ability to explore and engage in adventurous play, instilling in children a love for nature and fosters a sense of stewardship for the environment and our public lands.”

National Get Outdoors Day is being celebrated across the country. But you don’t need a holiday to head outside. Especially with the weather as downright gorgeous as it is across the nation, don’t waste your life indoors.

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More on Heading Outside
Happy National Get Outdoors Day Featuring Shrek
Hey Kids, Unplug, Get Outside, Because Nature Rocks
Get Outside and Play

The Chicago Tribune reports that when the USDA randomly tested a batch of cilantro for the first time in its 20 year program, it found 34 unapproved pesticides.

According to the story:

Azoxystrobin and captan are legal for use on potatoes but were found 16 times at levels that exceeded federal limits, the most such detections in this round of testing. Next on the list for excessive amounts of legal pesticides were imported asparagus and domestic spinach.

“We would not pooh-pooh these violations,” said Roy, of the FDA. “They all constitute adulterated food. But we are also talking about a relatively minor food. … We have to be risk-based and apply our main resources to foods consumed most often by infants and children — and those are your major fresh fruits and vegetables.”

I don’t consider cilantro a minor food at all. It’s used in tons of recipes, especially in the summer time. But at least medical experts are beginning to refer to the risk of pesticide residue.

Again, the Chicago Tribune:

Some medical experts, however, are increasingly concerned about even low-level exposure to pesticides, especially in utero.

“The story of pesticides in food is part of a larger story of our growing knowledge of the exquisite vulnerability of the developing human brain to pesticides and other toxic chemicals,” said Dr. Phillip Landrigan, director of the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Along with colleagues, he has been researching the effects of chlorpyrifros on humans.

Why calculate risks when you can simply buy it organically grown without dangerous levels of pesticide residue? Or better yet, grow it on your back porch or in your garden.

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More on Pesticide Residue
Avoid Pesticides in Fruit and Veggies
In Utero Pesticide Exposure Increases Risk of ADHD
Produce Industry Mounts Campaign to Entice Us Back to Conventional Pesticide-Loaded Fruits and Veggies

Wolves are also unjustly blamed for livestock deaths, when they aren’t even among the leading causes of losses. Weather, disease and even dogs kill far more livestock than wolves do.

READ MORE: Wolves Can Help Restore Ecosystems

Because of this misleading information, some in Congress are pushing to have the Gray Wolf delisted from the Endangered Species Act (ESA). It is not the role of Congress to decide which species should receive protection and which shouldn’t. In fact, Congress has never successfully legislated a species-specific decision under the ESA. Wolves should not be the first.

The ESA is one of our most cherished and respected environmental laws. Its power lies in the independent, scientific consultation at its heart.

Congress should play no role in determining whether or not wolves should be listed under the Endangered Species Act. That is a decision that should be made by independent science. To legislate such a decision would weaken the Act and set a dangerous precedent that could lead to more native fish, wildlife, and plants being wrongly stripped of necessary scientific protection.

If this goes into a legislative fight next year, it will be likely be the worst hit the ESA has taken under any administration, Republican or Democratic.

Congress needs to leave the ESA alone – the Gray Wolf should remain listed as an endangered species.

Read more about gray wolves:
1/4 of Rocky Gray Wolves Killed in First Hunting Season in Decades
No Longer Endangered, Gray Wolves to be Hunted by the Hundreds
Gray Wolves Are Back on the Endangered List… For Now