Our grandparents/great grandparents generation had unregulated pollution and wastage at the start of the 20th century. Their children changed that by demanding that pollution be regulated to levels that reduced the harm to peoples' health (ie, with things such as Clean Air Act 1956 in the UK). Their children, the baby boomers, were the driving force behind environmentalism and recycling in the 60s onwards, getting the most out of consumables and ensuring there was less of an impact by industry on health and homes through chemical sprays and the like (hence no more DDT, harmful fly sprays nor lead based paints, etc). Gen-Xers continued this trend by pushing to eliminate CFCs, single use polystyrene and the introduction of biodegradables. Gen-Y and Gen-Z have pushed for the end of single use plastics, and the eventual move away from non-renewable power to renewable sources, and so on, etc. And all the while there has been resistance to these efforts, but they've always been proven wrong and their resistance has come to nought. Who's championing the unregulated dumping of nuclear waste today? Who's dismissing the 'overblown' claims and evidence that lead poisoning negatively affects prenatal development? Where are the councils dismissing the overwhelming medical evidence that cigarette smoking is directly linked to lung cancer? Evolutionary dead-ends die out, the only thing that's been malleable is the time frame it took for these recalcitrants to capitulate and die off. This has been the case since time immemorial.
So do we honestly think we will change the way we are treating this world? F*ckin' oath, because our behaviour has been changing with each generation.