Sapiens: a brief History of Humankind

10.
 Reconstructions of two giant ground sloths (Megatherium) and behind them two giant armadillos
(Glyptodon). Now extinct, giant armadillos measured over three metres in length and weighed up to two
tons, whereas giant ground sloths reached heights of up to six metres, and weighed up to eight tons
.
In the Paci c Ocean, the main wave of extinction began in about 1500 
BC
, when
Polynesian farmers settled the Solomon Islands, Fiji and New Caledonia. They
killed o , directly or indirectly, hundreds of species of birds, insects, snails and
other local inhabitants. From there, the wave of extinction moved gradually to the
east, the south and the north, into the heart of the Paci c Ocean, obliterating on
its way the unique fauna of Samoa and Tonga (1200 
BC
); the Marquis Islands (
AD 1
);
Easter Island, the Cook Islands and Hawaii (
AD
500); and nally New Zealand (
AD
1200).
Similar ecological disasters occurred on almost every one of the thousands of
islands that pepper the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean and
Mediterranean Sea. Archaeologists have discovered on even the tiniest islands
evidence of the existence of birds, insects and snails that lived there for countless
generations, only to vanish when the rst human farmers arrived. None but a few
extremely remote islands escaped man’s notice until the modern age, and these
islands kept their fauna intact. The Galapagos Islands, to give one famous
example, remained uninhabited by humans until the nineteenth century, thus
preserving their unique menagerie, including their giant tortoises, which, like the

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ancient diprotodons, show no fear of humans.
The First Wave Extinction, which accompanied the spread of the foragers, was
followed by the Second Wave Extinction, which accompanied the spread of the
farmers, and gives us an important perspective on the Third Wave Extinction,
which industrial activity is causing today. 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.
Perhaps if more people were aware of the First Wave and Second Wave
extinctions, they’d be less nonchalant about the Third Wave they are part of. If we
knew how many species we’ve already eradicated, we might be more motivated to
protect those that still survive. This is especially relevant to the large animals of
the oceans. Unlike their terrestrial counterparts, the large sea animals su ered
relatively little from the Cognitive and Agricultural Revolutions. But many of them
are on the brink of extinction now as a result of industrial pollution and human
overuse of oceanic resources. If things continue at the present pace, it is likely that
whales, sharks, tuna and dolphins will follow the diprotodons, ground sloths and
mammoths to oblivion. Among all the world’s large creatures, the only survivors
of the human ood will be humans themselves, and the farmyard animals that
serve as galley slaves in Noah’s Ark.

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