Because that's where the action is. Many persons believe that God is the creator and the owner of the world. Native Americans share this belief. In fact, they go further and say that the land cannot be sold. Most of us believe that humans have the responsibility of stewardship rather than to conquer nature.
Good stewardship mandates that the biodiversity of nature be preserved.
I would like to talk a little about how many in the current Congress are carrying out this mandate of stewardship toward the world. This is something we are all interested in as it is bound to affect our lives. Senior citizens are faced with deteriorating health care, should this Congress achieve its goal of cutting taxes at the expense of social services. Labor, too, is becoming concerned, as are educators, environmentalists, and the defenders of civil rights. In the face of this opposition it is most unlikely that this Congress will succeed in its attempt to wipe out the last twenty years of environmental laws and the gains of the New Deal enacted in the 1930s.