Were our ancestors Environmentalists?
"Don’t believe tree-huggers who claim that our ancestors lived in harmony with nature. Long before the Industrial Revolution, Homo sapiens held the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinctions. We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology."
Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari)
When sapiens first landed in Australia (45, 000 years ago), we drove 23/24 types of indigenous large mammals to extinction. When sapiens settled the American continent, almost all of the unique large mammals went extinct. This was the pattern in New Zealand, Cuba, Madagascar... and many other islands.
Remember, these were the ancestors of Aborigines, Red Indians, Maori, and other tribes which are idolized by "tree-huggers" for being harmonic with nature.
This shows that we have been much worse in the past, and destroying ecosystems is not just a western trait, but something ingrained in our DNA. It also shows that we have been getting better through time, in acknowledging this trait and remedying its consequences.
Looks like, throughout our history, we have been the "Ecological Serial Killers!"
First posted on Facebook:
