“Minerals are where you find them. The quantities are finite. It’s criminal to waste minerals when the standard of living of your people depends upon them. A mine cannot move. It is fixed by nature. So it has to take precedence over any other use. If there were a copper deposit in Yellowstone Park, I’d recommend mining it. Proper use of minerals is essential. You have to go get them where they are. Our standard of living is based on this.”
“For a fifty-year cycle, yes. But for the long term, no. We have to drop our standard of living, so that people a thousand years from now can have any standard of living at all.”
A breeze coming off the nearby acres of snow felt cool but not chilling in the sunshine, and rumpled the white hair of the two men.
“I am not for penalizing people today for the sake of future generations,” Park said.
“I really am,” said Brower. “That’s where we differ.”
— John McPhee, from Encounters with the Archdruid (1971). Think how often this debate has been repeated, and in how many different cultural and economic contexts, in the decades since this conversation took place.