Saturday, 26 July 2014

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #256 Discourage Coral Trade

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #256 Discourage Coral Trade


Red corals are a particularly attractive species due to their colour retention and the variety of shades from pink through to red which make them desirable for jewellery and art objects. Naturally, as we’ve seen is human tendency, these coral reefs have been over-harvested, some areas in as little as five years. Doesn’t that strike you as one of the most ridiculous, insane examples of human waste and lack of thought for the future? It’s hard to comprehend. So when one area is depleted we simply move onto the next.
Keeping the coral where it belongs is a matter of high importance. Coral reefs provide homes and shelter for hundreds of thousands of reef wildlife, all around the world. They exist for a reason – they’re part of the chain, one of the links. When we take them for the purposes of jewellery, for limited and mindless human pleasure, we threaten so much more than that one species.
Coral is also mined for use in the building industry as limestone or construction materials. It is even used for road fill! So we can’t crush up pre-used concrete or something else to use for road fill?? Really?
It’s been a hard week, folks, as I’ve talked about discouraging ivory trade, tortoise shell trade, fur trade and now coral trade. Let’s think about how we can stop ‘taking’ from the other creatures that inhabit this planet and learn about ‘caring’ for them instead.

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