Funny thing I have noticed about the Eco-Luddites.

[Odin2005]

They always, rightly, criticize the notion that humans are above or apart from nature, but then turn round and use that exact same kind of thinking they criticize when they say things like "humans shouldn't mess with nature", which is like saying that a beaver shouldn't dam up a creek because it's "messing with nature". Many creatures modify their environment to suit their own purposes.

I point this out to them and they pull out the usual "Noble Savage that is One with Nature" garbage.

[TZ]

1. I always ask them

If were they to be bitten by a highly venomous snake like the Coral Snake how they would sit there and let the venom work, because obviously dying from a snake bite is "natural". They are all more hot air than anything.

[Deep13]

2. I think there is a feeling that humanity has exceeded...

...the Earth's capacity to support us. As someone who wants to see wild places protected, I do bemoan the "messing with nature," although I would put it that way. As you say, humans are as natural as any other evolved critter.

[semillama]

3. I think the terrible fact is this:

As a species, humans have messed with nature on such a great scale, that we have no choice but to approach nature from a management perspective. Without management, many of the wild places and species we value will disappear. And many, if not all, the wild places/species success stories of the last few decades have been because we've adopted successful management policies.

Yes, it sounds distasteful to say that wild places must be managed, and in an ideal world we'd design all our practices and materials so as to have a minimal impact on the natural world. but that's not the case.

[pscot]

4. You should probably frame your argument in the past tense

rather than the future. The great holocene extinction event is already well under way. We're past the point where "management" is likely to be effective, and the term "wild places" has become a historical anachronism.