Another pice of related news:
Gulf Awash In 27,000 Abandoned Oil And Gas Wells
It seems that several tens of thousands oil and gas wells in the gulf alone are abandoned. If they are, it is usually not because they are truely dry but because they became less economic. Still plenty of oil left in them and with time, hydrocarbons from small pores will collect again and build up. So what do they do? They leave the metal casing in place and drop cement on that. Just how long do you think will the metal last in the salty wet oceanfloor and how long will the cement hold? And what will be done if that happens? No one knows! This is like dumping nuclear waste into the soil in a yellow and black barrel - there is not a shred of morale thinking on what this will mean for the future of this planet and the people who will live here.

Dear Eywa. :(

Human greed/stupidity never ceases to amaze me. We don't deserve to be stewards to this planet.

And I'm sure Ms. "Drill Baby Drill" Palin is probably 100% behind this. She is such a hypocritical b****. She paints herself as a nature-loving outdoorswoman, but a true outdoorswoman wouldn't allow this kind of s***. And to think she is running for president in 2012 (and has a good chance at election). If she gets elected I swear I am fleeing this country.

Why is it we do not deserve to be stewards of this planet? We grew up here, is there someone else out there who has ownership of this earth?

Why?

Why does that list make it morally correct to deprive us of our home. What makes it right to take away our habitat, what makes environmental conservation right. So many other animals expand without heed to other species needs or environmental load, devastating the environment as we go. If we are nothing more then animals, then we have as much a right to do this to the earth as any other animal. The difference being between us and them though is we are able to do it and they are not.

Does this simple ability provide us with some sort of responsibility to be nice to the earth? Why so?

Because we have a choice. We have the ability to deliberately choose not to destroy everything we and every other organism on this planet depends on for survival. It's not about morality, just the selfish matter of basic survival. For us, not anything else. We're no more than an invisible speck in the history of the universe anyway.

We are not living in "our habitat", very few people do. We removed that habitat ourselves some time ago. I have seen very few examples of animal species expanding uncontrollably, and those cases (the elephants in Africa, rabbits in Australia, rats on tropical islands) have all been caused by humans. We set the stage, so to speak.

What is our habitat? What defines habitat? Is it were a creature lives? Mammoths migrated all over the world, did they leave their habitat?

No one has the right to take "stewardship" of this planet. The planet can care for itself, did so for billions of years and will do so once humans are gone. The matter at hand is indeed one of self preservation - of retaining our habitat. What is our habitat? It is the scosystems of this planet. Not one location, but the whole of it. Humans lived from the North pole to the deserts for millenia and longer - this planet is our habitat! But this planet with all its other species and life, not devoid of it.

Yes, other species also expand and if their environment cannot put up a resistance against that, they can devastate a place. As was said, such occurences could be seen in the recent past. But if you look at it, it never really went well for these species. They hit a limit and ugly things happen. As do now with people. Look at the news, look at people becoming depressed, violent, self-harming, drug addicts, alcoholics, leading wars,... do you think this increases by chance with the ongoing exponential growth in resource consumption and population growth? We are destroying our habitat and are paying the price for it. Of course we can do this and at some time suffer the consequences more and more. But people insist on humans beeing capable of acting differently and there are cultures in recent times as well as in the distant past that managed not to destroy the planet - so with that capability, we should really be able to get rid of this concept of perpetual growth if we want to survive as a species.

Our own fate and that of most of the present ecology of this planet is interwoven - we need them and they are impacted by us. If we have a choice, we should take it, if we have none, as we already lost control, the result will at some point be a crash. Population is already in overshoot - completely depending on energy from fossil fuels to survive. Without it, food production would probably decline if no new concepts are applied - and at some point, fossil fuels will decline. Maybe not in 10 or 20 years but the time will come, resources will run out and looking at the exponentially rising consumption (look at China) that time is coming closer fast. And if it comes, we can hit the wall or be prepared. We can hit the brakes now or smash into that wall full speed ahead. Maybe the people of this culture will not be able to hit the brakes - then it is destiny. But I fathom it is possible - either hit the brakes or abandon the vehicle, making the impact less harmful for all.