“The 3.8 billion years of plant and animal death and extinction that preceded humanity provided for the needs of civilization. Through that death and decay, God gave humanity enormous biodeposits of sand, limestone, marble, topsoil, coal, oil, and natural gas. . . . Civilization . . . is based on the abundance of these assets. . . . Humans are beneficiaries of the remains of millions of generations of plants and animals that preceded us.”
