I consider myself an "environmentalist" and those are some broad strokes you're painting. I'll cede that maybe OP was being equally dismissive of non-environmentalist positions, but so are you. Can you enlighten us on what some of these backward, thinly veneered social motivations might be? And don't tell me it always boils to saving some "insignificant" species; it does not. Likewise, perhaps you'd elaborate on your equation of wants and needs. If someone "wants" something, would you agree that it's not something they've "got" to have?