Historically, the only way a natural resource gets preserved for later is what you would call "shameful injustice" or "government coercion" or some such thing. Everyone else just uses it until it's gone, then crashes all Malthus-like.

The comment that this replies to made me widen my eyes. Left to our own devices, we go back to the mid-20th century and before where we just dumped all our garbage in the ocean. I'm consistently amazed by the faith jeff has in humanity to do the right thing in lieu of profit.