The environment isn't just about the elements. It's a complex system of diversity which offers more when aloud to flourish.
How inadequate and limited in vision you are, when you can't even consider the possibility of us striving to be able to create entire artificial environments all on our own from scratch. Preserving species near extition simply by backing up their DNA for future cloning, growing food and renewable resources through genetic modification and new technological breakthroughs, terraforming entire planets, and creating biodomes and sustainable ecosystems, able to keep us and a few other select species alive indefinitely in space.
The that comes from some rare species going extinct doesn't feel quite as when we can just "print" more of them in DNA sequencers.
Do you even know where knowledge comes from? It comes from the vast informational space which resides in the environment. As an example, a planet like Mars simply does not offer the same informational space to study.