[lioeters]

I think that makes the difference, the fact that we are (becoming) aware of the consequences of our actions. It gives it the ethical/moral responsibility that we don't expect from fungi, trees, or beavers.

On the other hand, I like your comparison to other species. At an essential level, human culture has lot in common with ancestral life forms, like a culture of slime mould. There's collective behavior over generations, of which individuals are largely unaware.

"Exceptionalism" is an apt word, because not only do we treat other species as our resources, we do it to our own. Humanity eats its children. The fact that we're doing this knowingly, is why we carry shame, a guilty conscience in our collective psyche. We expect better of ourselves, because we should know better.