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Ivory Trade Ban
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grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Edited May 31, 2017, 00:27
Re: Ivory Trade - no total ban (slight return)
May 31, 2017, 00:15
I'm really really sorry. I promised myself I wasn't going to do this, but this makes me bloody furious.

To the list of organisations who openly acknowledged that the antique ivory trade harmed elephants, I'd like to add the UK Conservative Party, circa 8 weeks ago. Because up until then they were totally in agreement with the incontrovertible fact -- supported by every shred of unbiased evidence -- that banning antique ivory sales would be a vital step (albeit one among many) towards preserving this remarkable species for a little bit longer.

Banning the trade completely will save the lives of elephants. For the tories to deny this, they need to explain what new evidence they've received to change their minds since they stated it as fact. Were they lying then? Are they lying now? Or has some new evidence come to light?

If it's the new evidence, why aren't they sharing it with anyone? The alternative is that they shifted their position about a fact based on political ideology. 8 weeks ago the UK tory party believed that the antique ivory trade harmed elephants. Now they don't.

I'll be honest, those letters from tory MPs you guys posted are fecking terrifying to me. The ease with which facts are subordinate to party diktat; and the seeming willingness of so many people to buy into it because they wear the team colours; it's terribly dangerous.

I'm in the tail-end of my 40s now. If I live an average lifespan there will probably be elephants in the wild when I die. But -- if many predictions are correct... if I live just a few years longer, I will see the extinction of this species. And that shames us all. That's beyond party politics. It's beyond modernity, civilisation... it's fucking profane is what it is. It is a vicious blow struck against whatever it is that is Sacred about our planet's biosphere.

As I read those letters from Tory MPs about their continued commitment to conservation despite their unwillingness to commit to an actual practical step in that direction, I was reminded of a line from Blake (oft-quoted by Gregory Bateson)... He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer...

That plea to the general good while assiduously avoiding the actual particulars of being good? Oh man, it's hardly just the tories... but they are really good at it.







(edited for spelling)
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