Reinventing the already existant?

As you probably know, Agent Smith discussed this very subject in "The Matrix" and concluded that the human race behaves more like a virus than a mammal, consuming resources without putting anything back, then moving on. Sadly, he had a point. Although many of us are concerned about conservation, I would say that on the whole as a race we take away a lot more than we give back. This is especially true of Americans. If every country used up resources as rapidly as we do on a per-person basis, they would already be used up. We need to make more of an effort to conserve and encourage others to do the same.