70% of Chinese polled did not know that ivory came from dead elephants

[n2doc]

By Per Liljas

Ride the subway in a Chinese metropolis like Beijing or Shanghai and chances are you’ll come across an ad depicting mutilated Chinese characters.

Xiang, the first character, means elephant, except that lacking some strokes, it is as if the animal is missing the tusks. The second and third characters stand for tiger and bear — but the missing strokes make them seem to be losing bones and gall bladder. The fourth and last character, ren, or human, is cut in half.

The ad is intended to stifle demand for the body parts of these wild animals, which in China are commonly thought to possess naturopathic benefits (or, in the case of ivory, ornamental ones). The market has soared on the back of the country’s growing wealth, and that has been a disaster for the most sought-after animals.

This year has been particularly dark, especially for ivory, the trade in which has been banned since 1989 by an international treaty. In Africa, around 100 elephants are being killed every day, by poisoning, machine guns or rocket-propelled grenade launchers fired from the ground or helicopters. Such poaching is feeding terrorist groups like al-Shabab, who conducted the deadly assault on the Westgate mall in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in late September.


http://world.time.com/2013/11/01/the-ivory-trade-is-out-of-control-and-china-needs-to-do-more-to-stop-it/

[LuvNewcastle]

1. I was just thinking that maybe the thing to do is to breed elephants without tusks.

Maybe if we do that, we can save the species. As long as they have those tusks, they are in constant danger, it seems.

[eShirl]

3. leave them be and develop lab-grown tusks

[LuvNewcastle]

6. That would be the best solution, I'm just afraid of them being wiped out before they could do it.

It seems like they probably have enough expertise now to genetically engineer the elephants. Of course, changing one detail is going to cause other unforeseen changes.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. ...

[onehandle]

2. A 16th century society is going to be running the world in a few decades. nt

[Blue_Tires]

7. I'd say half the world is already under their control...

[Sheepshank]

4. I find this result quite fascinating given another thread ranking world's students

and having China and it's affiliates #1 in math, science and reading.

Seems to confirm that the chart on the other thread was bogus....as was mentioned by several on that thread.

[Fumesucker]

10. No one has polled the American public on this question yet that I've seen

I wouldn't be too sure that our people would do all that much better.

[snooper2]

5. Who in that other thread was thinking woo is harmless again?

I sometimes forget the woo problem in the US is a fraction of the woo problem other countries have-

[Orsino]

9. What was that Tea Partier's sign?

"Keep the government out of my Medicare"?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. Wait, what?

Another thread here on DU shows that the Chinese are way the hell ahead of the U.S. in science education, and a large majority of Chinese don't know where ivory comes from? Like maybe it came from dead pianos?

[n2doc]

14. Maybe it needs to be added to the tests n/t

[KamaAina]

12. China is officially ready to supplant us as the world's superpower.

They're just as dumb as we are!!

[Johonny]

13. I know I had this problem with my girl friend

She wanted to buy Ivory in Thailand and told her no way. I had to explain to her they kill elephants to get it. It doesn't appear to be considered horrible in China to buy and sell Ivory. Hopefully that will end.