Throughout history, human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonize-destroy-move on.
Numeracy: 1. The art of putting numbers to things, that is, assigning amounts to variables in order that practical decisions may be reach. 2. That aspect of education (beyond mere literacy) which takes account of quantitative aspects of reality.
Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.
Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart.