In the final sentence of his essay, Esty makes a declaration that both climate change and human action affect the remaining megafauna. This assertion about the present stage of megafauna extinction directly relates to the debate about the causes of mass extinction of megafauna 50,000 years ago that Esty describes in the article. Scientists have developed two theories explaining this mass extinction. The first theory claims that human overkill is the cause of megafauna extinction while the second one questions the human impact arguing that climate change also contributed to the extinction (Esty). Esty concludes with the scientists’ agreement that both factors combined have had an impact on the extinction of megafauna 50,000 years ago. Esty then
