Ici Londres: The ivory ban won't help elephants.

[Raldazzar]

Very well put, also shows that you are objectively able to see the other side.. something certain folks still cannot do.

[hairetikos]

A good example of the 'tradgey of the commons'.

[Skylab]

Very good point, Dan! Here in the US, hunters have used this principle in some states to complete save several species of African mammals which have been transplanted to similar ecosystems and carefully guarded and managed on ranches.

[horbibooks]

Great video. You are the most libertarian MEP I ever saw. You should make one about the DDT ban killing millions in Africa.

[Awibrahor]

Very sensibly argued and worthy of serious consideration.

[gordonbradley]

the same principles have been applied to the UK labour market.

[bittergeek]

The same forces apply to big cats and hunting. Without the income from rich western hunters for lion hunts, the locals have no incentive whatever to tolerate massive predators in their vicinity. They aren't simply a nuisance, they are an outright threat. (Anyone reading this wishing to disagree: imagine a pack of feral dogs moves into your neighborhood, each dog at least as large as a Newfoundland. Exactly how long will you live with this circumstance before you demand someone, anyone, to end the threat? Will you care that some bleeding heart complains that they are just living according to their instincts and have as much right to be there as you do?) However, $50, 000 USD to cull a single old male buys a lot of appreciation for the species. Suddenly the beasts become the most precious resource the locals will ever have access to, albeit still a dangerous one.

If canned hunts of elephants were allowed to freely trade in the ivory, the herds would grow. True, they will be living in more artificial circumstances than they would if strictly wild, but the crucial point is that they will be living. Lots of them. (Given the chance, Texans and Aussies would herd them like cattle, if not for the screams from PETA and the like.) Exotic game ranches have done more to increase the populations of rare species than any conservation group. The complaint that they aren't living a more natural life is like complaining that a talking dog has a difficult accent - be impressed that the damn dog is talking at all.

[goughrmp]

Standard lobby campaign. Old 38 degrees again

[danroe]

Uhm, no. Elephants can not be raised like cows in a farm just to be slaughtered for their ivory. Such a horrible thought process.

[QuantumOverlord]

You have a point, but I'm sure slave owners could also have used this logic to justify allowing slavery. In my opinion perhaps a better solution would simply be a ban on killing elephants regardless of the motives. A free market in elephant repellents seems more satiable than one in ivory. Free markets are usually fantastic things, but efficiently and minimally applied regulation can also be a good thing.

[michaelahorne]

By this logic surely it would be okay to harm your next door neighbour if they were a 'nuisance'. A life is still a life, why would an animal's life have any less importance than that of a human.

[malsahth]

Ok, this is very basic economics. Nothing revolutionary here. Where is the grand brexit plan?