Mass extinctions of the worlds megafauna coincides with the arrival of man to a new land. In Australia, shortly after government-less humans arrived 65,000 years ago roughly, the larger animals went extinct and the country underwent massive deforestation. Possibly a coincidence, but the same thing happened again in North and South America, when they were colonized for the first time approx. 40,000 years later.
Agriculture, which began about 12,000 years or so, further encroached, by displacing natural diversity with huge areas of mono-culture. Animals that were useful were bred in huge numbers, animals that were not, were pushed into smaller and smaller pockets of untouched wilderness.
The counter culture loves to blame government and big industry for today's problems. But rather than using effort to find scapegoats (usually the leadership), would it not be better spent on trying to understand human nature in more depth. Or encouraging collaboration. Blaming the people with the power to change is not going to win them over.