Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari. I think I mentioned this the other day. Harari argues that in prehistorical times humans were responsible for the extinction of many large species. I was reminded of this today when Tyler Cowen pointed to a piece on the relatively recent extinction of woolly mammoths on a large island. The story says,
Archaeological evidence suggests that humans reached Wrangel Island at roughly the same time the last mammoths vanished, but there’s no evidence yet to indicate that they ever hunted the mammoths. The more likely answer is climate change, which as a side effect might well have made it easier for humans to reach the island to serve as witnesses to the mammoths’ final days.
Harari points out that humans do not have to hunt creatures in order to cause their extinction. For example, humans could disrupt food sources.
I am only part way through the book. My ultimate evaluation may not be favorable.
It’s a pseudo science justification of socialism.
“there’s no evidence yet to indicate that they ever hunted the mammoths. The more likely answer is climate change . . .”
No doubt anthropogenic climate change. Damn those oil companies!
He had a MOOC on Coursera https://www.coursera.org/course/humankind
It was interesting and provocative. He acknowledges the oversimplifications in his short videos. His treatment of capitalism was a bit “strawmanish” but overall the lectures were entertaining. I think for most typical liberal minds is was eye opening.
What, no interest in Hoppe’s new book which appears to cover precisely the same territory?
http://mises.org/library/short-history-man-progress-and-decline