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| http://youtu.be/vpTHi7O66pI |
I have waited a couple of weeks after returning from TEDActive to write this post. I had hoped that my feelings of intense disappointment and disillusionment would dissipate, but they haven't. Would someone please explain the selection of Allan Savory for a TEDTalk at the 2013 TED Conference, knowing that he had systematically exterminated 40,000 majestic elephants, as a result of his incorrect hypothesis? He did not even consider minimizing his recklessness by testing his theory on a much smaller population, in a smaller area of land. He removed native people from their land, destroyed 40,000 elephants and THEN discovered he was wrong. How can this barbarian be invited to speak at TED?!
Additionally, Mr. Savory’s newest theory for solving desertification is to bring in herds of nomadic livestock to trample the land, defecating and urinating as they go. His hair brained hypothesis flies in the face of the widely accepted research about the root causes of desertification, which include global warming, unethical and short-sighted over-planting, feeding methane releasing livestock instead of adopting vegetarianism, and deforestation.
I am a foster mother to a couple of orphaned baby elephants at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Both of them were rescued after having witnessed poachers murder their mothers for their tusks. Some of the orphans die of grief. The ones who survive are greeted and surrounded in a literal circle of love by the other orphans, trunk to tail.
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is the only organization that releases orphaned elephants back into the wild. After two years of care, they are ready to return to the African wilderness. The Sheldrick graduates send a subterranean message to each other, and then arrive from miles away to “pick up” the newest member of the herd.
If Allan Savory is sincere about wanting to pay penance for his grievous crime against nature, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust needs help in every way to continue their heroic efforts. http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/
It is my fervent hope that the TED organizers would choose to invite any of the real humanitarians to speak at TED 2014. My personal list includes Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick, Dr. Jane Goodall, Ric O'Barry and the Dolphin Project, Dr. Con Slobodchikoff, to name a few. Who are the humanitarians on your list? I will gladly compile a list and forward it to Chris Anderson and Kelly Stoezel at TED.
