And all the ecosystems and species we depend on*

> The planet will be fine. It's humankind that's at stake.

This is oft repeated, but it fails short of anything meaningful. The planet, as in a rock floating around in space, will be fine, yes. But what about the untold amount of species of plants and animals that are suffering and will continue to suffer in our wake?

They will adapt or die and something will replace them. Diversity will go down for a while and then back up again. It's almost impossible to sterilize Earth and as long as something lives on it will eventually flourish again. It will never be the same but something else will flourish.

Isn't it part of the question of whether life existed on Mars? If it did and got wiped out, it would mean that something else doesn't always flourish.

True, but we're talking about millions of years of possible desolation before that happens.

Hopefully many of them outlast us regardless of what stupid things we do, but yes this is a very real risk and we could take down a huge portion of diverse life on the planet with us.

All of life comes at the cost of other life, whether it be a human or a wolf or a kudzu vine.