"We" always didn't. Wipe out flocks of birds for some decorative features on hats and set a river on fire and add some Hippies into that mix and you got an environmental movement. Silent Spring, look it up. Theodore Roosevelt too, because when you go hunting and discover what you used to shoot by the ton suddenly isn't there this week, well, that kinda is a downer for the hunting enthusiast hobby industry.
"We" don't care now, as the gleeful cheers over stripping environmental regulations and opening tundra for oil because we don't have a big enough glut of what our grandchildren were supposed to use now and turning federal land into tract housing and opening national parks into trophy hunting zones is somewhat rather indicative a lot of people not giving a crap. Except for monarch butterflies, because they're in trouble, and they look pretty. Monarch butterflies are pretty. So we have to save them. By signing a an Executive Order declaring them in trouble. Because monarch butterflies are pretty. And an autopen signature on a piece of paper will save them.
Everything else? It's just target practice now.
"We" didn't always care for the environment. Until "we" were legislated into caring for it.