The Solution to Japanese Whaling

So, ye Japanese whale-eaters, eat this:

Chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption, because they are toxic - as revealed by research on the Faroes themselves.

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today in a statement to the islanders, chief medical officers Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen announced that pilot whale meat and blubber contains too much mercury, PCBs and DDT derivatives to be safe for human consumption.

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The work has revealed damage to fetal neural development, high blood pressure, and impaired immunity in children, as well as increased rates of Parkinson's disease, circulatory problems and possibly infertility in adults. The Faroes data renewed concerns about low-level mercury exposures elsewhere.

It's a Small, Small, Small, Small World

And if anyone's wondering why I keep posting stuff about Chinese currencies - virtual or real - try this for a little hint about the interconnectedness of things (which is what this blog is all about), and the deep nature of a commons:

At least one-third of California's fine particulate pollution -- known as aerosol -- has floated across from Asia, says Steve Cliff, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California at Davis. "In May this year, almost all the fine aerosol present at Lake Tahoe [300 km east of San Francisco] came from China," says Tom Cahill, a UC Davis emeritus professor of atmospheric sciences. "So the haze that you see in spring at Crater Lake [Oregon] or other remote areas is in fact Chinese in origin."

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The irony of finding Chinese mercury in American rivers, of course, is that much of it was emitted to produce goods being consumed in the United States. There's been a growing awareness that importing commodities from the rest of the world displaces pollution from the U.S. onto other countries; this story brings it full circle and demonstrates yet again that in this fishbowl called Earth, pollution can't be displaced "elsewhere" for long.