A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

It is the LAST straw that breaks the camel’s back
The metaphor is also used allusively, especially in the phrase the last straw.

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  1655J. BRAMHALL Defence of True Liberty of Human Actions 54 It is the last feather may be said to break an Horses back. 1793 in Publications of Colonial Society of Massachusetts (1954) XXXVI. 298 It is certainly true that the last feather will sink the camel. 1848 DICKENS Dombey & Son ii. As the last straw breaks the laden camel’s back, this piece of underground information crushed the sinking spirits of Mr. Dombey. 1876 I. BANKS Manchester Man III. xv. The last straw breaks the camel’s back. 1983 R. BARNARD Case of Missing Bronte iii. ‘This is the picture, as far as we have it,’ he said,.. a sigh in his voice that suggested that the visit of the Prime Minister was the final straw that might break the camel’s back of his professional equilibrium. ■ excess
  

When the LAST tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money
Native American saying.
□1983 H. WASSERMAN America Born and Reborn 277 ‘When you have polluted the last river,’ goes an Osage saying, ‘when you have caught the very last fish, and when you have cut down the very last tree, it is too bad that then, and only then, will you realize that you can not eat all your money in the bank. 1995 New York Times 17 Aug. (online) ‘A Modest Step to Save the Fish’.. brings to mind a prophecy of the Cree Indians: ‘When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money.’ 2006 L. S. JOUBERT Scorched: South Africa’s Changing Climate 203 Once the last tree is cut and the last river poisoned, you will find that you cannot eat your money. 2007 Sun2Surf 5 Feb. (online) But that may be wishful thinking in the light of the Cree Indian prophecy that ‘only after the last tree has been cut down, the last river poisoned, the last fish caught, will man find that money cannot be eaten’. ■ environment; money