I think the challenges to changing behavior are severalfold:

- results of current conservation activities will likely not be seen in our lifetime
- costs are generally higher (because most current behavior is subsidized - like fuel or landfills)
- you're asking people to reduce consumption which flies in the face of every dollar spent on advertising in the world (which is probably some go-zillion dollars)

So, despite our supreme intelligence we're still behaving like a virus.

Also, isn't the top tier of any food chain the most likely to go extinct? Lions, raptors, dinosaur, etc?