Meadows and Russow

Meadows has a very practical argument which is fairly simple in the way she states it which is that we need to control humanity in order to protect the environment regardless of we do it for moral reasons or for reasons of self-preservation. Russow’s claim that we need to protect the Earth to defend ourselves I can completely agree with though I believe it is more complex than she makes it out to be. For example what are ethical ways of controlling human numbers with such a huge base population and in what ways should we govern ourselves? I think these are much, much more difficult questions to answer than she makes them out to be. I don’t know why Russow believes it is more arrogant to consider ecosystems as a source of economic value in creating medicines etc rather than viewing them in terms of their ecosystem services or in their accumulated knowledge. All seem very anthropocentric reasons for valuing diversity so I would think they would be fairly equally arrogant. I largely agree that biodiversity as a source of economic value, environmental services, and as a source of wisdom are very accurate reasons to value nature.
Russow seems to conclude that species can have a greater/less degree of aesthetic value and that we have moral obligations to preserve that aesthetic value. I can agree that aesthetic value is definitely a valid source of value to give to creatures however while it may seem a practical one to her I am not sure that it is. For one thing it is a very subjective source of value and what one person finds aesthetically pleasing may vary from person to person. I also feel that it could be considered a rather arrogant point of view to equate life to a piece of art such as a painting. I am also not sure what the basis is for a moral obligation to preserve things with aesthetic value. Is aesthetic value an example of intrinsic value and how do we measure it? Personally it seems to me that while she does prove that other arguments will fail to protect certain species, aestheticism will also fail to accomplish giving protection to species.