[avar]

The extinction of a species is permanent, it won't exist tomorrow, and it won't exist in a thousand years. Contrasting that with transitory economic interests of the current electorate is short sighted.

There's a very good reason to be extremely conservative in extinguishing a species, with the benefit of hindsight it won't be worth it. The extinction of the mammoths and dodos also increased economic growth for someone at the time.