Evolution doesn't exist anymore. Since people have a brain they have tried to use it. Sadly the more clever they thought they were the more they were fighting against evolution. Today it is considered socially desirable to do everything possible to actively fight against evolution, namely survival of the fittest. If we some day get wiped out by ourselves then evolution didn't fail us, we failed evolution.
If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.