N ow that the Paleo Diet has garnered attention from a worldwide audience due to recent data reports suggesting that the trend has surpassed and outperformed other familiar dietary regimens including veganism and vegetarianism, we can expect that it is going to be scrutinized more than it had been in previous years as its popularity continues.  Not only will the overall health of the diet be called into question, but experts in environmental sciences will speculate about the Paleo Diet’s viability and environmental sustainability as well.

D id you know that there used to be camels native to North America? Yes, you read that correctly. Camels. Camelops hesternus, to be exact. That is, until we hunted them to extinction some 13,000 years ago. In fact, the mere existence of humans has caused such ecological stress that we have been responsible for the demise of half of the large mammals in the continents which we inhabited. Causing extinction is an old pastime for our species, and it’s been a huge blow to precious biodiversity, genetic pools, and ecological function ever since. The truth is, our species continues this trend of environmental decline and extinction in the footsteps of our ancestors like we always have— with our diets.