The Elephants in Our Living Room, Part 4

African Elephants -- Public Domain (AnimalGalleries.org)

Part Four of a Four-Part Post

Awww, who are we to say "NO!"? And who would listen? Not the shadowy purveyors of shark fins or elephant tusks and rhino horns. Not the oil-soaked barons with their winsome promises and frankenfrack realities, or the tinkerers of witches' brews that foul our soils and bodies. Not legislators who feed at the trough of power.

And, of course, not because of a few cranky voices; no NO is loud enough in itself to be heard and reckoned. "They" have smirked a thousand times at NO.

But "NO!" is the only force, the single word we have. The MLK "NO!". The Gandhi "NO!". The NO that is fixed and immutable. Ground-swell NO. Finger-pointing NO. NO that stalks with constant footage and solid rhythm and irrefutable evidence. That notes  the sullied by their bloodied hands.

If. If we care enough to do this kind of "NO!", to do this "STOP!"

Most of us, as I said, are consumed by life's demands. But many of us are also blinded by our toys―and yes, our ploys. Oblivious to or paralyzed by the dying of a natural world once rich and ripe―teeming with irreplaceable, unimaginable, breathtaking diversity: immune to the magic of all things winged and finned and limbed―and the incredible variety of flora that sustains them.

In this world grown pinched and crowded, every tiger leaves his perfect pelt stretched upon each wall. Every doodad carved of ivory gathers dust upon our shelves―totems of the devil's delight for our triviamania. Every lithe sea creature slicked and sickened by oil, or dragged from the waves for senseless slaughter, ends up in our boat . . . . All  this will rebound upon us all.

For this is the final seduction: The shameless buying and selling and reshaping of the human soul. The trinketing of earth that feeds our vanities.

Enough is not enough for us. Never. Not in the board rooms, nor the sullied halls of congress. Not across the sweep of our society, no―not when bigger-smaller, newer-sleeker-better is parked across the street. Or in our pocket. Or wedged into our living room, where it fits so nicely and defines us so well, and matches the carpeting . . .

Or did, until the elephants came, in single file, a dreg of rumpled ghosts.

We must make room for them, these iconic creatures. Here in my home, and yours. We must weep for them, with them; cry out, call out, trumpet in their singular voice, tell the dawdling world of their distress, their demise . . . and make sacred space for them, safe in their own milieu. Before the last of them lies butchered on the bloodied soil.

Or it won't be long now.

Will we ride into history on the back of our beloved "mastodon," the gentle beast-nonpareil-progenitor on this Ark that is earth? Will we even know what we have forfeited? Noah is not waiting with a gangplank and an open door. The boat is pulling away emptied.

Open your door. 

List of Information and Statistics relevant to above:

*According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, 96 African elephants are killed per day for their ivory tusks. This is called poaching and is one of the primary reasons for their population decrease. The other major component to their population decline is the loss of their habitat due to human encroachment and deforestation. Nin Ninety-six elephants are killed every day in

Statistic: "More than 100,00 elephants were poached in Africa between 2010-2012. (National Geographic Society)

Although it's technically illegal to buy and sell ivory from freshly killed elephants, the sale of older ivory is still perfectly legal in much of the U.S. -- including California.

And since it's so difficult to distinguish between new and old ivory, the state's ivory market, the second largest in the U.S., has continued to skyrocket. In fact, the proportion of ivory offered for sale in California that is likely illegal has doubled in the last eight years. (NRDC)

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"Tiger numbers in the wild are thought to have plunged from 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century to between 1,500 and 3,500 today." (http://bigcatrescue.org/tiger-facts/)

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Bees are a 'keystone species', and honey bees especially, are regarded as ‘canaries in the mine’ – an indicator of wider environmental damage and problems – a warning that action needs to be taken to rectify a dire situation, one that potentially affects not only honey bees but also other insects and creatures up the food chain.

Honeybees are dying at astronomical rates in the United States, Canada, and Europe, a phenomenon which could potentially have dire effects on the world economy and agricultural ecosystem.

http://www.bees-and-beekeeping.com/honey-bee-deaths.html