They view environmentalism as fundamentally a moral issue, and present their case to the public in those terms. This is why they have failed. It is human nature to readily accept information which conforms to deeply held beliefs, while rejecting that which does not. Merely discrediting this research will do nothing to alter the underlying beliefs. The environment has an intrinsic value which is completely independent of human needs or desires.
All animals exploit nature, in the sense of using natural resources in order to survive.
Dr. Lennox attacks this belief system on several grounds. To ecologists, environment only has meaning when considered relative to a particular organism. Some features of the local environment benefit the organism, some harm it, and many are simply irrelevant. In order to understand what the human environment is, Lennox says, we need to understand human nature. Surely, developing an environmental policy for human interaction with nature without considering humans as part of nature is madness, and doomed to failure from the start.