TLDR ALERT!!!
Mondo, I don't believe that statement... the amount of animals killed for food, clothing, shelter by the early inhabitants had no impact whatsoever on the demise of these animals, rather radical environmental changes did almost all of the eradication. Heard somewhere that plastic sixpack holders have killed more baby seals and birds than all the oil spills put together... and all of those factors put together are just a drop in the bucket compared to changes in water or air temperature. Dubya OKayed the opening of the flood gates of the Kalamath and raised the water temp up eleven degrees, pretty much killing all the steelhead and salmon roe in the river, seven years later they haven't recovered.
There are three major man- made world affecting catastrophic environmental events in evidence of the 20th century, and no, the Oklahoma Dust Bowl is not one of them...
In third place we have the destroying of uncounted millions of acres of jungle fauna in order to plant soybeans by <drum- roll please> BRAZIL! No telling what this has done to the delicate oxygen/CO2 balance of the atmosphere, we're just beginning to find out the results of this act.
In second place we have the Aral Sea disaster which has pretty much dried up the fourth largest inland sea on earth to grow more cotton for the Soviet/Uzbek/Kazakh coffers, anyone know if they are still doing that?
And the winner is <major drum roll and cymbal clash> CHINA! Talk about air, water and soil contamination by industry, this effort dwarfs all the countries in the world PUT TOGETHER!
Now, anyone know how much of these efforts were fully or partly funded by US money? Good question...
