[freeflight]

But if you are so skeptical of the "appeal to nature" how would you decide what's positive for Earth/the ecosystem?

Wouldn't you just come back to the conclusion of "What's good for nature must be natural or else it can't be part of nature?"

Imho it's that logic which most "appeals to nature" are built upon.

[michaelmrose]

By figuring out a list of priorities and balancing the benefits of different strategies in terms of those priorities?

[virmundi]

Very hard to do. You've got a form of utilitarian calculus going on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felicific_calculus