This is why humans will go extinct.  Five days ago, I first noticed this trillium beside the trail.  There used to be a large cluster of trilliums here, but over the years they had been abused down to nothing.  This year, one managed to struggle back.  When I saw it, I figured it wouldn't last long.  It lasted five days before someone plucked the flower off of it.  Most likely, it won't last too much longer before it is trampled by dogs or kids.  During those five days that people had a chance to see its flower, probably several hundred people walked by the flower, and probably several dozen noticed and admired it.  One person took the bloom, simply because it was there. 

The flower thief will suffer no consequences for her action.  Hundreds of other people who might have seen the flower will be deprived of its beauty, but the flower thief won't be punished.  The flower thief does not care that this flower was taken away from everyone else who came after her.  The flower thief may not even know why she took it.  It was there, she made up some excuse why it was okay to take this flower, and she took it. 

It is this way with everything else in nature.  If 95% of the people are willing to protect and preserve a natural resource, it doesn't matter.  The 5% who are willing to ruin everything for everyone else can demolish nature with impunity.  The 95% will not enforce laws that protect nature. 

In the neighborhood around Eagle Landing Park, hundreds of large Douglas-fir trees contribute to the environment, providing ecological services to us all.  Every year, 99% of the people in this neighborhood don't cut down their large trees, but 1% does.  They suffer no repercussions, even if it is illegal to cut those trees.  Within a certain radius of the eagle's nest tree, you need a permit to cut a significant tree.  No one ever gets that permit, and no one is ever fined.  The houses are bought and sold, and that 1% moves around the neighborhood.  In a few decades, all of the large Douglas-firs will be gone.  The people who cut them will suffer no consequences. 

We all rely on the biosphere, whether we think so or not.  Most of us degrade the environment as a byproduct of daily living.  Our way of life is using resources at an unsustainable rate.  A small portion of the population degrades our environment at a much higher rate.  This man drives a car that puts out 100 times as much pollution as the average car.  His car is even prohibited by law, but the law is never enforced.  This family has a fire in the fireplace, burning wood.  It creates pollution that is much more damaging than car pollution, and it provides little or no actual heat to the house.  It actually sucks warm air up the chimney, and may make the furnace work harder than if there were no fire.  Another neighbor uses pesticides and fertilizers on his lawn, over-waters his lawn, and washes the chemicals into the storm drain.  A small minority, like the flower thief, know they can degrade the environment as much as they want, and they will not suffer any repercussions.  This is how humans will go extinct.  The flower thief is killing us all, and no one cares.