Tell me, what good were all the people of great influence when we have still managed to screw this planet, deplete fish stocks, wage war on nature, and generally make things difficult? When GW kicks in and rising sea levels give us less livable land, with more desert or permafrost...and the burgeoning world population (an extra 3 billion in the next 40 years). You got a recipe for freakin mayhem. Someones gotta decide what's what before people end up scratching each others eyes out for a sniff of real estate or a lick of disease free water. There will come a time when your philosophical sensibilities will be irrelevant.

Easy.