Throughout history humans began to expand their territory and with the aid of technology they assimilated the land to do what they want. Humans being more of an intelligent species looked back at what they were doing and saw that they were endangering or killing other species, and their surroundings. Species such as the Dodo bird ceased to exist thus never keeping their end of the food chain. Until the early 1970's people didn't care what they were doing to the planet. Although a few strides for change in the early 1900's, none of those strides would make a large impact on the environment. For example in Syracuse huge companies such as Crucible Steel were dumping huge amounts of Mercury into Onondaga Lake not caring what they were doing. Little did the know back then that Mercury being a heavy metal on the periodic table, was toxic and would damage the lake forever. In addition to Onondaga Lake, during the 1880's as America was expanding westward people began to slaughter buffalo. The buffalo is a large herbivore that needs large amount of territory to graze was in the path of those trying to settle new lands to the west. The buffalo was believed to be a nuisance was killed almost to extinction (ceasing to exist). Also included along with the slaughter of animals; humans creating roads, highways, and cities push other species of not only animals but plants into extinction. This process doesn't take that many years, and with the help of society new government laws and programs were created to stop the future killing eliminating of other species. Though it may seem people have more damage then good, they still strive to make up for what they've done. In addition to the laws and regulations, the United States has also gotten their military involved into the chain of environmental protection. People are the key in this situation to make sure that life continues on the planet.
             Prior to the 1900's America wa...