I learned about the near extinction of north American bison in school but we were always lead to think it was accidental. That Europeans saw so many bison and figured they couldn’t make a dent in that if they tried. Realizing that a lot of it was on purpose is so sickening.
To put this near extinction in a bit more context, I seem to remember reading a paper which suggests the biomass of hoofed animals like bison, deer, cattle, etc., was roughly the same pre-invasion of the Americas compared to today with mass scale animal agriculture.
native hooved animals (ungulates) of so-called North America are estimated to produce 80% of methane emissions compared to livestock today. amazing considering the weight of a mule deer is ~1/6 of a cow and that “eat less meat” campaigns ask for far less livestock than pre-colonial native ungulates
I learned about the near extinction of north American bison in school but we were always lead to think it was accidental. That Europeans saw so many bison and figured they couldn’t make a dent in that if they tried. Realizing that a lot of it was on purpose is so sickening.
To put this near extinction in a bit more context, I seem to remember reading a paper which suggests the biomass of hoofed animals like bison, deer, cattle, etc., was roughly the same pre-invasion of the Americas compared to today with mass scale animal agriculture.
native hooved animals (ungulates) of so-called North America are estimated to produce 80% of methane emissions compared to livestock today. amazing considering the weight of a mule deer is ~1/6 of a cow and that “eat less meat” campaigns ask for far less livestock than pre-colonial native ungulates
At least in Canada, in the 2010s, they actually acknowledged many of the atrocities done to the natives in my high school social studies class.
Granted, that’s just talk. Now if only we can actually do things about it.