Gardeners of Eden on Pivot - Trailer

[Omaha Steve]

The story is here in GD: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026556742

Published on Apr 20, 2015
Africa's elephants are hurtling toward extinction to fuel the worldwide ivory trade. While conservationists howl and corrupt governments fail to address the ongoing slaughter, one brave family has been working for decades to stem the tide, one elephant at a time.

In Gardeners of Eden, actor, philanthropist, and producer Kristin Davis takes you on a gripping, first-person journey inside the operations of Kenya's David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. From the front lines of the crisis, we witness their heroic efforts to stop the poachers in the bush, rescue the orphans of slain elephants, and raise them by hand until, one day, returning them to their home in the wild.

Gardeners of Eden premieres Wednesday, May 6, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, only on Pivot TV.

[Plucketeer]

1. How is this impending debacle any diffedrent than religion?

Folks believing that the possession of ivory or the ingestion of Rhino horn will make wrongs right. Like the supposed magic of holy water - the partaking of some grape juice or a piece of bread. Can we really believe these things make us whole again?

Man is just another catalyst for extinction - like an asteroid strike, like volcanoes blocking vital sunlight - our rise to prominence because of our perceptive brain is just another cog in the struggle of life on earth to strike a balance. We've risen from clubs of bone to nuclear nightmares, but no one's working on devices of mass salvation.

The earth will be here - spinning as always - long after we've done ourselves in and taken so many other life forms with us. We're fools to think we can step in and stop these extinctions. We worry about the glorious elephants or majestic whales or butterflies or brightly colored frogs. But who's the champion for much less endearing creatures - creatures we normally regard as loathsome pests? They too, are indispensable cogs in the ecosystem that is our home?

Saving elephants is like daubing at a runny nose while the real illness is as incurable virus. I understand why it's being done, but I also see a real futility to it. Our supposed "intelligence" is what's going to be the death of so much of the variety of life we hold dear. And there's no salvation in the supreme beings WE CREATED to save us once we figured out we couldn't save ourselves. I mean - what a deal eh? Spend an hour in a holy building - confess a few sins - light a candle or two - spin a prayer wheel - burn some scented sticks - toss a few coins or stuff written confessions into cracks on a wall. Bigno! You're good to go and be a free-wheeling - ecologically ignorant dumbass again.

It's real irony. Irony worthy of being a topic for Jon Stewart one night.