If a tree fall in a forest...

In this week's Torah Portion - Shoftim - an army besieging a town is commanded by the Torah to not cut down the surrounding fruit trees. Two rabbinic commentators, Ibn Ezra and Rashi, offer diametrically opposed reasons why the Torah says what it says.
 
Ibn Ezra says that the commandment exists ultimately for the welfare of human beings, since the fruit trees provides food. Cut them down and there will be less food.

Rashi says that the Mitzvah is there to teach us that certain things have intrinsic value above and beyond the needs of human beings. The trees should not be cut down because - unlike the people of the city that is being besieged - they cannot flee and protect themselves.

So the question we need to ask ourselves today - please excuse the reference to treif - is whether or not the entire world is really our oyster? Does human need grant us the right to help ourselves to the earth's resources as we see fit? 

Conversely, as Rashi suggests, are there certain things we refrain from exploiting simply because they exist and should be held sacred for that reason alone? 

Taiku.