Natural Control

Humans seem to be the only beings on the planet that are concerned with environmental damage. When an animal's environment becomes damaged or affects the chances of survival for that animal, the animal simply relocates to a better one. No animal tries to fix the environment that was either hurt by itself or by some other force. Beavers don't start using less wood to build their homes after they have brought down a number of trees. But all of these animals appear to be held in check. The beaver has many predators such as wolves, coyotes and hawks. Thus the beaver population cannot simply expand and so is not allowed to bring down an infinite number of trees. The predators on the other hand are kept in a circular check with the beaver population. There cannot be more predators than an amount that can survive on the available amount of food. Humans on the other hand seem to have completely bypassed the system. As the human population increases, people simply increase the production of food since food production itself is dependent on people. People have taken most of food production out of the natural cycle and put it into human hands with farms and plantations. Food is now available outside the natural cycle on an almost limitless basis. The refrigerators at Wal-Mart are constantly stocked with all the basic food items. Humans also don't have any predators to keep the population in check. As the human population increases people are going to need more and more materials and resources from the natural world. If there is no one to keep humans from doing so, the natural world with its own cycles seems to be in imminent danger. 

But humans also posses a quality no other animal seems to have. Humans worry about the environment. If a certain environment is damaged, as in the Hurricane Katrina example, people do not simply relocate but rebuild and fix everything until it is suitable for living. Humans worry about CO2 emissions. People are concerned about things that do not affect them on a personal level. Could this be the method of keeping humans from destroying the environment? Is this a natural control of people to keep us in check? Will this power of moral reasoning be strong enough to prevent us from using up every single resource on this planet?