The horrible truth is that "environmentalists" (in the popular meaning of the word), want to destroy forests, animals, and most of all: people.
IOW, they are motivated by death.
I disagree. I think they are positively horrified by the prospect of death, and think that nothing should ever die. That's why so many of them are vegetarians. I'd bet not a one of them has seen a dead body (then again, neither have I....). They don't want to kill animals for food, and they don't want to kill trees for wood. War and the military are always uncalled-for. Gun control is a given, because guns are for killing.
Theirs is a happy, fuzzy-warm world of the sort seen in small childrens' books.
The fact that it doesn't correspond to the realities of life on Earth makes no difference to them -- the world ought to be death-free, and they'll do all in their power to make everybody pretend it can be so.
The dirty secret is that they're basically children playing at big-people games -- and as often happens when children use adult equipment, things and people get broken and killed. But of course, like all children, when it happens they'll claim it wasn't their fault.