I am sure that about 15,000 years ago there must have been a few people sitting around a smoky campfire saying "if we don't get a grip on our intrusion into nature there aren't going to be any more wooly mammoths".....or something like that.... man made pollution while not desirable or no pollution whatsoever, the Earth is gonna shake humans and a vast amount of other species off its back like a dog shedding water as it always has and nothing is going to stop that. New flora and fauna will emerge over time to replace the old and the gold will keep tumbling down the hills to the streams... time to go get some more Gold.
GM