From territory to territory, life was
swept away. Entire animal species were decimated through overhunting. The
demand from European elites for fine furs drove hunters and trappers into
Siberia and the Americas, carving open new frontiers. John Astor, founder of
the American Fur Company, became the first multimillionaire in US history (21).
Fishing fleets scoured the seas, slaughtering shoals. In less than 30 years,
sea cows were harpooned into oblivion across the Bering Strait (22). Quaggas,
thylacines, great auks, passenger pigeons, warrahs and hundreds of other
species disappeared within decades. Industrial whaling, driven by demand for
blubber, culled whales to the edge of extinction, removing all bowhead whales
from the Beaufort Sea