Can nuclear fallout help stop elephant poachers?

[DavidBrown]

Maybe all of that atomic testing in the 1950s can help stop elephant poaching in the 21st century by helping identify when elephants were killed.

Nuclear fallout drops the bomb on ivory poachers - latimes.com

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

I seriously hope this is a joke! We really need no more Chernobyls to contaminate our Planet.

To reduce the poaching crisis to a ... let us drop the Bomb ... is ignoring the challenge and what really needs to be done. Governments really need to get serious over wildlife conservation and the environment and combat the illegal wildlife trade like they do the drugs trade as it is an organised crime circle whose profits far outweigh those in the drugs trade and the benefits are better as punishments if any are usually incomparable to the crimes committed.

 

[callorhinus]

I seriously hope this is a joke! We really need no more Chernobyls to contaminate our Planet.

To reduce the poaching crisis to a ... let us drop the Bomb ... is ignoring the challenge and what really needs to be done. Governments really need to get serious over wildlife conservation and the environment and combat the illegal wildlife trade like they do the drugs trade as it is an organised crime circle whose profits far outweigh those in the drugs trade and the benefits are better as punishments if any are usually incomparable to the crimes committed.

As I understand this article these scientists are just saying about possibility to track the way of ivory (maybe relatively old and legal) using isotopes which are already exists. There no more bombs needed of course.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

Than it is a seriously old hat suggestion that is being hailed again as the holy grail. For the record: it is already being done in the field and used quite effectively in wildlife crime detection. The mineral content of the ivory confiscated can now define from which source population the products originated, sometimes even to the level of individuals.