Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to sell fish, and the oceans boil with propellers.

Muir and Audobon saw the threat of dollarization of natural resources, and that was a promising time for philosophy in the world. Then came the World Wars and the 'success' of consumptionism (belief in competitively buying our lives from salesmen who bought politicians).

Competition. Ambition. Free markets. Perpetual Growth.

All of these are supposed to be good things, but nobody asked future generations or the land what they needed before "lifting all boats".