[Hunpecked]

geoschmo writes:

>> They didn't evolve under those conditions, they just didn't do a good job of taking care of their environment

Certainly a possibility. Or it could be out of their hands. Suppose for example that the "little ice age" that hit Europe at the end of the Middle Ages had blossomed into a full-blown global ice age. Humans might have landed on the moon in (perhaps) the 22nd Century with only the earth's equatorial regions habitable year-round.