The Unholy Worship Of Ivory

Why are so many elephants being slaughtered? In a word, according to a must-read National Geographic investigation: religion.

Here’s the tragic result since 1979 (click image for full size):

Throw in a heartbreaking video and you will learn all you need to know to understand that unless the link between ivory and religion is severed there will be no more elephants.

It’s hard to image a greater symbol of how dismally humans have failed the planet and its species, and the catastrophic results that flow from the ceaseless elevation of human desires and preoccupations over the ideals of compassion, conservation, and stewardship. It’s too bad we don’t seek and worship wisdom.

(Andrew Revkin, at the New York Times’ Dot Earth blog, has a lot more on this story).