Green activists often depict “modern technology” as the culprit behind extinction and species loss. But is it really? Primitive humans wiped out countless species, while many species have made comebacks in the modern technological world.
As The Doomslayer explains:
humans have been exterminating wildlife since prehistory….large animals such as mastodons, sabertooth cats, mammoths, American lions, and the now topical dire wolves…In the Americas and Australia, where humans first arrived later than in Eurasia or Africa, human beings proved particularly deadly, as local species were unused to coexisting with homo sapiens and had not developed ways of surviving human interaction….the last 50,000 years saw about 90 genera of large mammals go extinct, amounting to over 70 percent of America’s largest species and over 90 percent of Australia’s.
Such exterminations continued throughout the preindustrial era…People first settled in New Zealand in the late 13th century. In only 100 years, humans exterminated 10 species of moa, along with at least 15 other kinds of native birds, including ducks, geese, pelicans, coots, the Haast’s eagle, and an indigenous harrier….
Lions, hyenas, and leopards are all native to Europe but were eliminated from the continent by human activity in antiquity….Countless species have been exterminated…in the preindustrial era….“Such prized game as bear, wolf, and wild pig were extirpated from the British Isles by the end of the Middle Ages.”
For the past 50 years, species populations are no longer shrinking in wealthy countries, and in many cases, they are increasing. According to a 2023 investigation, poor countries’ populations have also stopped declining. “The extremely large number of species that are said to be continuously dying out comes from theoretical models of insects and even smaller organisms that are assumed to disappear.”… Wild animals are coming back in rich areas of the world, with a resurgence of bison, boars, ibexes, seals, turtles, and more….Last year, thanks to the growth in their numbers, the Iberian lynx wildcat, the red-cockaded woodpecker, and the Apache trout all ceased to be endangered.
India has doubled its tiger population, even as its population and economy have grown rapidly.
Bengal tigers are making a comeback in Bangladesh, as are Asian antelopes and olive ridley turtles, even though Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely-populated nations, with nearly as many people per square mile as cities like Atlanta. (Bangladesh has more than 170 million people living in an area the size of Arkansas).
The snow leopard population has doubled in Kazakhstan. Mountain gorillas are making a comeback in the African country of Rwanda.
