I'm not sure I agree with the premise - "we should be scared because these people's lives sucked and apparently they just sorta soldiered on." …well, yeah. You just spent 800 words saying "whoops, rats, ergo, ecocide." What were they gonna do - Amazon in some D-Con? It's 1300AD and your great-great-great grandparents sailed an outrigger canoe a thousand miles from Polynesia. Now here you are on 63 square miles of dirt and the trees, birds, and critters are all gone, except for the rats. Here's a better question, following this line of thinking: WTF are the Inuit doing north of the Arctic Circle? You'd think "walking south" would be the killer idea since, I dunno, they hit permafrost. I prefer narratives that aren't tidy. Appreciate the share. It was an interesting article, if maybe a little over-wrought in its conclusions.