…and I say we have to start being our planet’s keeper. Including the life forms inhabiting it, along with us. When we don’t care, we fail to police greed, abuse, brutality and the balance of a system of survival which helps ours upon tracking. Yes people are now making a good living of this, but so are pimps of trafficked women and children in the world. Does that mean they should be able to continue so their houses can be decorated, or so that they are eating steak dinners at the expense of life or sanity somewhere else?

In my opinion, no.

The world community was doing really great, shunning the purchase of Ivory for a while. The demand for it went way down. When I was little it was the material of beautiful jewelry, but as I grew up, it suddenly became shameful, and I saw it no where. But when you did there was a strange ‘Ewww,’ sentiment attached. So the education, worked, once.

Once upon a time I lived in a region where ivory was ‘the’ material to have for jewelry. It was kinda the rage in Africa, then. Then time passed and the view transformed (as far as I saw).

Even when I moved to the U.S. it was still the rage. But from then to now, Ivory went from being openly displayed in stores to non existent on store shelves. It became shameful for stores to sell.

But desire for and the relationship to Ivory, is changing once again. Poaching has become a lucrative job again and acquiring Ivory “in,” for some in China. The New York Times recently ran a piece, tackling some of the issues with this and the U.S. is preparing to help tackle the problem, to bring it under control.

However I think we can all be a part of this shift, with our conversations, tweeting, blogging, even art work. Why should the planet continue to be victim to our emerging needs, which fuel systems we made up to begin with?

I say we say “No,” to the return of this trend.

AND…THERE’S MORE:

Help if you can.