Environmentalists are often sloughed off as extremists and freaks. So is it any surprise that Icelandic elves are a reason to thwart a highway expansion project?

Yes, that’s right. Elves.

In Iceland—home of Bjorks and fjords—there are also elves. And advocates for elves. These advocates have partnered with environmentalists in efforts to get the Icelandic Road and Coastal Commission to drop plans for a highway project in the Alftanes peninsula because it could disturb a fragile elf habitat. And an elf church. All of which wouldn’t be such a farfetched preservation plan if, you know, elves actually existed.

According to the Huffington Post, Iceland’s Supreme Court will rule on a case brought by a group called Friends of Lava. Until the case is heard, the Icelandic Road and Coastal Commission has to halt its highway project. “And it’s not the first time issues about “Huldufolk,” Icelandic for “hidden folk,” have affected planning decisions,” reports the Post. “They occur so often that the road and coastal administration has come up with a stock media response for elf inquiries, which states in part that ‘issues have been settled by delaying the construction project at a certain point while the elves living there have supposedly moved on’.”

However quaint the elf folklore may be—and Scandinavian folklore is full of elves and trolls—the region (Denmark, Norway, Sweden) generally doesn’t take elves seriously. Unless you’re in Iceland, where a University of Iceland study found 62 percent of those surveyed believed it was “at least possible that elves exist,” reports the Post.

Friends of Lava supporters and environmentalists are mostly concerned about the environmental impact the Alftanes project would have on the area’s lava field.  So perhaps the elves are just a way to tell the story.  Or maybe it’s even a bit more. According to Terry Gunnell, a folklore professor at the University of Iceland, who told the Post, “In short, everyone is aware that the land is alive,” he said. “And one can say that the stories of hidden people and the need to work carefully with them reflects an understanding that the land demands respect.” Sometimes a good story makes all the difference. Especially if it’s about elves.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Image: stuck in customs

The post Please Don’t Bulldoze the Elves: Environmentalists in Iceland Fight for (Imaginary?) Regional Creatures appeared first on EcoSalon.

The privacy watchdogs have been barking hard this season. In case you’ve been off-the-grid, here’s the controversy from the world of social media that preceded one perhaps even larger about DNA research…

This week, Facebook automatically gave its users’ personal information to sites like Yelp and Pandora. Now, you and your FB friends can see each others’ bitchiest restaurant reviews, and worst, one-hit-wonder indulgences whether or not you ever intended to reveal these to one another.

Last month, Google raised privacy concerns when it automatically revealed its email users’ closest contacts to the Gmail public, through the launch of its Google Buzz product. Google Buzz was supposed to have taken over Digg, Twitter, and everything else social media by now but hasn’t, quite partly due to public backlash.

Now, imagine it’s not your social map, preferred menu or your pop cultural sensibilities being scrutinized and seen by the public. This time, it’s your actual hereditary material! We’re talking public, deoxyribonucleic acid blues.

One Native American tribe, the Havasupai, sued and won their legal battle against researchers from the University of Arizona who were using their DNA to run tests for things the tribe never authorized.

According to several legal news sites, the Havasupai initially donated DNA samples agreeing to a project that was supposed to focus on their tribe’s high incidence of diabetes. But the samples kept getting tested. Other matters, besides diabetes vulnerability, became a question subject to the scientists’ inquiries including the tribe’s supposed geographical origins, and their collective mental health.

The environmental implications regarding how a specimen gets used are as staggering as the ethical and legal ones.

Fishing rigs in Japan, for example, may state and are authorized to fish for whales in order to study whale population changes and marine health, or to hunt whales within a quota. But they sometimes sell the whales they “accidentally” catch, or catch for “scientific study,” as whale meat on the black market.

Should they be allowed to re-sell the grand creatures they kill for food if the intent was scientific study? Isn’t it wasting them, not to eat them if they’ve already been hunted?

Or does a scientific and accidental allowance create a black market and culinary demand, as well as disrespect for endangered species?

Finally, if you gave your DNA up for one study, why not the other?

Use the links and resources below to get informed, and talk to us about how much intent matters when it comes to science and knowledge gains for the greater public. Comment below or holler on Twitter @ecosalon.

Basic Reading:

– “The geneticist responsible for the research has said that she had obtained permission for wider-ranging genetic studies. Acknowledging a desire to ‘remedy…wrong that was done,” the university’s Board of Regents agreed to pay $700,000 to 41 of the tribe’s members, return the blood samples and provide other forms of assistance to the [tribe]. Legal experts said [the settlement] was significant because it implied that the rights of research subjects can be violated when they are not fully informed about how their DNA might be used.” – Indian Tribe Wins Fight to Limit Research of Its DNA, a New York Times news feature

– A Discover magazine blog post asking what will happen to DNA samples that were gathered before the idea of consent was formalized in regards to DNA research, now that this case was won.

– “The vast majority of the world’s countries are against the killing of endangered animals in but Japan issues itself a “scientific whaling” permit using a loophole in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) bylaws to continue commercial whaling. Every year since the moratorium they escalate the “takes” or kills in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary to include more and more protected and endangered animals.” – A HuffingtonPost blog entry by Louie Psihoyos

Further Resources:

A privacy-focused blog that takes a strong side with the Havasupai tribe

Researchers’ perspectives on the matter of consent and DNA samples, via Swiss DNA Bank

Clashes between environmentalists and the whaling industry continue in New Zealand, a news feature at the New Zealand Herald

Image: micahb37

This is the latest installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and trends by EcoSalon writer and columnist Lora Kolodny.

The post EcoMeme: Is Your DNA a Public Concern? appeared first on EcoSalon.