For the time being the pressure to develop these areas is dropping since logging, grazing and mining are becoming harder to do on public lands, at least in the West. The one-two punch of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act have made society look to its watersheds for redemption and balance its desires with the needs of the larger life community. Pesticides and other toxic pollutants continue to wreck havoc with the sensitive food chains of the Great Lakes. Mercury rains down on Midwest cities, slowly poisoning humans and other species alike. The Great North Woods cries out for restoration after more than a century of exploitation and acceptance of a less diverse forest.
Sprawl continues to eat up open space and rich farmland worldwide.
And as agriculture becomes even more technological we are losing the diversity of seeds and genetic material on which our rich bounty is based. Two billion people lack access to clean drinking water. And while air pollution drops in the U.S. its grows in the developing world, poisoning people who can't hide from its sooty shroud. Even the skeptics are beginning to accept the reality of global warming which will have profound effects on the future of each of the 6 billion people now sharing the planet with us. Even our best efforts to reverse it will come only after we have experienced its full effects.