I think the reason for this is that most kinds of fearful or desperate reactions to the multi-leveled crises of the ecosphere come out of separation from the earth. The earth does not feel moral outrage. It is certainly not an excuse for rejecting most of human endeavor and opting for having as little possible impact on ecological systems as possible. A good example of this has to do with transportation. Any ecologically aware person decries the current expensive and toxic use of fossil fuels in most forms of individual and mass transportation.
Many people try to avoid using that kind of transportation as much as possible.
It is a moral issue to them. This is not to say that there is no value in the example of a moral stand, but that we so often get caught up in the quest for personal moral purity, that we forget to do the smartest thing from the planet's point of view. Another example of the conflict between planetary values and human values about the planet can be seen in the conflict between proponents of ecological preservation and proponents of ecosystem management. Both of these implicitly treat humans as separate from, other than, the Earth. But these aren't the only options.