"""
The pollution problem is a consequence of population. It did not much matter how a lonely American frontiersman disposed of his waste. "Flowing water purifies itself every 10 miles," my grandfather used to say, and the myth was near enough to the truth when he was a boy, for there were not too many people. But as population became denser, the natural chemical and biological recycling processes became overloaded, calling for a redefinition of property rights.
"""
The excerpt seems to convey the same opinion, but if read the paper you get to see it from many more view points.
What is your point?
For example, how would the stuff left on Everest affect the remote sensing requirements of the future? Perhaps there is more, but we cannot have thoughts about the questions we do not know to how to ask yet. This view point should not be straw-maned as objecting to any and everything, it is simply cautionary.
In summary, in coming to conclusions we have to factor in our lack of sufficient imagination.