Well, that's the point, right? Given a limited resource, society should, in fact, have open debate about which uses are acceptable and which are wasteful. No?

I will agree to "Society should have an open debate about X" for most values of X. But if the numbers don't matter — and people are shocked by any amount of consumption for a practice they've already decided is just bad — then it seems disingenuous to call it a debate about resources.