to effectively protect and conserve global ecosystems and wildlife, i think a certain level of maturity, respect, and understanding is necessary … every individual must understand the depth of the issues, respect all forms of life, and live maturely to minimize negative impacts to the planet and all Earth-dwellers …

maturity is having the foresight to anticipate what the consequences of your actions may be; then, based on that knowledge, firmly and confidently making decisions that, to the best of your knowledge and experience, will not effect negative repercussions … most importantly, maturity means that you willingly, freely, and openly accept the consequences of your actions and decisions, regardless of whether or not the outcome(s) is/are what you anticipated …

maturity doesn’t mean that you don’t make mistakes … when you err, maturity allows you to own your mistakes, your misjudgements, your faults … admit them, learn from them, and express genuine apology when necessary …

learning from your mistakes means that your understanding, perspective, and behaviour change … mistakes make you stronger … mistakes make you wiser …

wise people learn vicariously from the mistakes of other people … as a global society, let us look collectively at the frightening collapses — social and environmental — of past and present examples to learn how to best preclude the recurrence of similar devastating events …

perhaps the most notoriously known example of the dangerous consequences of reckless abuse of natural resources is Easter Island (aka Rapa Nui, Te Pito o Te Henua — translated as The Navel of the World, and Vaihu), an insular province of Chile in the South Pacific Ocean … rapid and unfettered extraction of the limited natural resources, coupled with a resident population whose demands far exceeded the availability and rate of renewal of harvestable resources, resulted in irrecoverable decimation of the vast majority of plant and animal populations … the native Maoi  society was thus pushed to near-extinction …

an aerial photograph of easter island today

deforestation and over-fishing were the major violations that doomed the island society … eventually, external “recruitment” of people (namely European settlers and immigrants from nearby Pacific islands) contributed to helping maintain a relatively viable human population on the island …

however, if Easter Island is a reflective microcosm of our own planet currently in peril, we have no chance for external (i.e., extra-terrestrial) recruitment to keep our human or wildlife populations viable … the only chance we have is ourselves …

there are no renewable resources that are inexhaustible …