The europeans believed they must live in harmony with the environment

Europeans came from an acquisitive capitalist culture that valued individual wealth and accomplishment. In keeping with their Christian beliefs, most Europeans took literally the biblical admonition to subdue the earth and exert dominion over it. From their perspective, any land that had not been thoroughly settled and cultivated was useless. Indeed, the term “wilderness,” used liberally by English settlers across North America to describe the continent’s forests, was synonymous with “wasteland” or “desert. Colonists failed to understand that southern Indians used some lands—especially hunting and fishing grounds—without cultivating them. Most Europeans believed they had the right to buy such property (even if Indians did not fully understand the terms of sale) or simply take the land to use as God commanded. In short, they transformed the land and its resources into valuable commodities that could be sold in the world market.

swe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. — that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. "

- declaration of independence

  according to this passage from the declaration of independence, who gives government the power to exist?

a) the king

b) the people

c) their creator

d) their governmenthook