Conquerors and competitors, this is what humans and all animals are to a certain extent; every living being on Earth has a mission: to survive and reproduce. The balance of the environment is based on this concept of constant competition, but this balance also has checks and balances if it is damaged or becomes unstable. Humans have developed to the point where they can fully exploit the environment as they wish. There are no natural predators to control our population, we fight disease with revolutionary technology, and we replace native plants and animals with others that better meet our “needs.” We have, in a sense, created our own cultural and commercial world, distinct from the natural world. In this new world, economic prosperity trumps all, and conservation and preservation take a back seat if the dollar signs aren't favorable. This realization led many people, including one of conservation's founders, Aldo Leopold, to be pessimistic about the success of a conservation system based on economic self-interest. He states in his book The Land Ethic that “a system of conservation based solely on economic self-interest is hopelessly unbalanced” (756). For my part, I have more faith and optimism that humans will realize the importance of this other world and live in harmony with it. I believe this because of the possible consequences of exploiting the natural world, the eventual realization that we must conserve resources for future use and our future physical and economic survival, and the recent trend in which these scenarios begin to be realized and put into practice. , and educated for others. Humans have the natural instinct to survive, and a higher level of thinking and problem solving will accompany the... middle of article...... July, September 15, 2008. Web. May 4, 2011. James, Alexander, Kevin J. Gaston and Andrew Balmford. “Can we afford to conserve biodiversity? BioScience 51.1 (2001): 43. MAS Ultra – Academic edition. EBSCO. Internet. May 4, 2011. Léopold, Aldo. “The ethics of the land”. A World of Ideas: Essential Reading for Academic Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 745-765. Print.Lomborg, Bjørn. The skeptical environmentalist: measuring the real state of the world. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print. Michaels, Patrick J. “Is Global Warming Still Bad? The Cato Institute. November 3, 2004. May 4, 2011 Yohe, Gary, James Neumann, Patrick Marshall and Holly Ameden. “The Economic Cost of Greenhouse-Induced Sea Level Rise to Developed Properties in the United States.” Climate Change 32.4 (1996): 387-410. Web.