Nature for natures sake is largely a straw man though. Factories prefer to dump waste into the air that people want to breathe. They want to dump waste into rivers people want to drink or fish from etc.

Protecting nature is both protecting ourselves and our interests. Sometimes extreme environmental harm comes with minimal benefit to anyone. Other times it’s the reverse where minimal harm results in vast benefits such as with the GPS network, generally it’s more balanced.

If anything the environmental argument is nature is extremely valuable, be sure the trade off is a net win for society.