- via The Independent
They journeyed from the East to pay homage to the boy king bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. But they would struggle to complete the feat today. Times for wise men have never been tougher. Gold prices are soaring on commodity markets, myrrh crops have been hit by drought – and now frankincense could soon be no more.
Solid frankincense resin can be sold at up to £37.33 per kilo, according to the International Centre for Research in Dry Areas. Myrrh is roughly twice as expensive, but prices are volatile – something that can also be said for the Wise Men’s third gift. Four days before Christmas, an ounce of gold costs £1,029.20 on the international market – up by nearly 20 per cent this year.
But the worst news for biblical gift-buyers came this week, from Dutch ecologists studying populations of Boswellia in Ethiopia, who warned that numbers of the frankincense-producing tree could halve in the next 15 years and eventually cease altogether if factors such as fire, grazing and insect attack go unchecked.
Read more at The Independent.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.
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