User:Abbymarlowe/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Ivory trade

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because I was initially looking for something relative to the field of study in my Environmental Science class. After filtering through many categories and sub-categories of environmental science, I found an interest in "Poaching". I have very little previous knowledge of poaching, however, I am interested in law and policy, and I know that poaching is relevant to some environmental laws.

Evaluate the article
The lead at the beginning of the article was very well written, it contained a concise description of the main idea of the article, and immediately grabbed the attention of the reader. The last sentence of the lead, however, mentioned the creation of synthetic ivory which was only relevant in the first paragraph, and had little to do with the actual poaching and harming of elephants and other animals. Following the lead was an intriguing first paragraph that contained informative and compelling content about the use and importance of elephant ivory. This section contained more of a historical description of elephant ivory, specifically pertaining to Japan's use of ivory in the early 1970's. The second section concluded with current information about today's status of China's economy and their sparse use of ivory compared to Japan. This article was written from a neutral standpoint that allowed the reader to comprise their own opinions regarding the subject. However, the opposing side of this article would have been the need for ivory during certain time periods before a replacement for ivory was created, and that viewpoint was underrepresented. The second subheading of the article titled African Elephants contains content about African elephant's habitat problems unrelated to poaching. This content seems little off topic and could potentially distract the reader at too early of a point in the article. Overall, this article was informative about the historical, future, and impending problems regarding the illegal killing and poaching of elephants for their ivory, that will eventually lead to extinction.