In the 1800s it was widely believed that humans could not cause animals to become extinct. As the thinking went, God created the world, and man is less than God

In the 1800s it was widely believed that humans could not cause animals to become extinct. As the thinking went, God created the world, and man is less than God, so to believe that man could destroy God's creation was heresy. Oops! That sure was wrong, huh? But the same underlying beliefs persist to this day, with resolve tempered by the knowledge that actually doing something about the current situation would require a meagre amount of discomfort, and is thus unimaginable to the relatively wealthy people you'll find here.