I think a large part of conservation/endangered species protection is not that we just want to prevent everything from going extinct, but to prevent ourselves f

I think a large part of conservation/endangered species protection is not that we just want to prevent everything from going extinct, but to prevent ourselves from being the unnecessary cause of that extinction. If whale oil had never been fuel, whales would be doing better right now. If weasels/rats/etc. hadn't been introduced in many places, a lot of native species would be having less trouble (particularly in New Zealand). Also, saving endangered species, from a utility perspective, makes sense. People like animals. Therefore we want to keep them around. The cute ones like whales and kiwis anyway. I bet this page doesn't get a lot of visits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangered_spiders http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangered_spiders ...and now I'm ranting.