African elephants may be gone in as few as 10 years. The reason? Greed.
Despite a 1989 international ban on ivory trade, an elephant is killed every 20 minutes for its tusks to feed an insatiable demand for ivory, driven largely by consumers in China.
As the price of ivory skyrockets on the black market, organized crime syndicates, rebel groups, militias, insurgents, and even terrorists are cashing in. Ivory finances the growth of the same criminal enterprises that traffic drugs, guns, and women and children. It also funds the mass atrocities committed by groups like Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, Sudan's Janjaweed, and Somalia's al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab.
The mass slaughter of elephants, some of the most intelligent and charismatic animals in the world, has become more than a topic of conservation -- it's a matter of global security.
