Eventually, society improves. We are built as a species to work together, not to persuade each other to get our way. A rainforest offers us necessary components for life. Society can easily topple the will of a destructive forestry industry if the problem gets worse. But for now, environmentalism can reduce the cleanup we might need later if a crisis occurs.
It's worse than that though. We can't get back rainforests (or old growth forests) and its biodiversity in any timescale relevant to the current plight of humanity. Deforestation is occurring and has been occurring at a horrific rate.
The problems are unawareness, ignorance, and greed. Some benefit near term and don't care. I've tried to explain what biodiversity is all about. But most people don't get it. To summarize:
1. Biodiversity is our primary repository of undiscovered knowledge for the sciences, whether medicine, material science, engineering or computer science. Examples are molecular compounds, the microscopic structure of shells, internal biological methods and processes, products of animals such as spider silk, social dynamics, such as in bees and ants, etc.
2. Biodiversity co-evolved, and works in synergy to provide ecosystem services, which in turn regulate the environment. Removing components is often like removing organs from a human body.
