Who gets to determine how the resources are allocated? This is the centuries old question. Who owns the earth? Who owns the right to resources? Not can we, but should we mine finite resources at the risk of endangering future generations?

Depending on what culture you belong to, the answer varies. Native American tradition teaches that we should honor the earth for providing us with the resources to sustain life. They valued not taking more than was needed to survive. This is a sound ecological perspective.

Western culture focuses on resources as something to be exploited in order to boost the economy and prosperity of nations. However we have gone beyond national support into personal wealth. Exploiting resources for personal gain at the expense of not only other citizens, but the infrastructure of the earth itself is greedy and foolish.

Environmental stability and sustainability should be of prime importance to all citizens on a planet, because what happens on one side of the planet affects people elsewhere.

History is peppered with examples of what happens when we try to take too much from the land. Clear-cutting leads to desertification and lack of biodiversity. Mining increases erosion, sinkholes, pollution of groundwater. While taking these resources allows us to build more and become a superior culture, we do it at a risk.

The way it is done is also contentious. Mining resources is seldom done for the whole community. Mostly it is done for profit, by a few industrious or possibly selfish persons who wish to profit. Plus, without regulation by a benevolent government, mining resources leads to pollution and degradation with sometimes severe injury or harm done to others.

There are ethical several levels here. First, is it right for the few to profit on a resource that does not belong to them? Is it right for these people to then sell the resource to us at a profit? (think bottled water folks). Is it right for a nation to own the land, and if so should they be allowed to mine resources at a profit, or lease the rights to others without accounting for the true cost of a resource to future generations?

My opinion is that no one should have the right to deplete or endanger a resource beyond what is sustainable.

Getting back to the question of the underage miner. Evidently she was mining a finite resource shared by a larger crowd for personal profit. Granted, the other people might not have wanted this resource, but she did not attempt to ask before liberating. Was she harming anyone? Doubtful. Those M& Ms have toxic shit in them- colorings and flavorings, sugar, etc. So she might have been saving people from themselves. But she could also have been pissing off others who wanted the resource. She did not try to hoard and sell however. Brownie point for that.

Summation: Ethically, she should have considered others. However, it is doubtful if she was doing any real injury to anyone but herself.

Note: mining gorp does not equate with mining a true finite resource. more M&Ms can be bought at the store and are easily obtained. Their true value is negligible and does not directly impact the well being of others on a global scale.