Given historical and prehistorical evidence, I think it fair to say that even in the cases where humans were not responsible, it was not through lack of trying.

Given historical and prehistorical evidence, I think it fair to say that even in the cases where humans were not responsible, it was not through lack of trying. Human societies gorged themselves until they had to adapt to scarcity, at which point I think we started developing concepts like living in harmony with nature, agriculture and land management.