A Wonderful Wild Kingdom Stampedes Toward Extinction
April 16, 2026
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The fact we are going to extinguish ourselves, whether through the climate crisis, an AI-fueled robot apocalypse, or some combination of hubris, isn’t the depressing part of what we are doing to a paradise we were lucky enough to stumble into.
While we are killing ourselves so a handful of us can horde financial wealth — no amount, by the way, can recreate what we are destroying — the heartbreaking aspect of human gluttony is all the nonhuman life we have and are eradicating.
The collective we, especially the rich and powerful, doesn’t care. We are the world’s most destructive pest. We now gamble on whether people starve or others are bombed back into the Stone Age.
Unsurprisingly, since we don’t really value human life, we exclude animal welfare when we do integrated assessment models, despite clear evidence that climate change will harm billions of animals through habitat loss, extreme weather, and ecosystem disruption, according to a white paper published in February.
The authors believe this is a “significant moral oversight.” It certainly is.
Yet, some religious zealots preach that God created Earth to be inhabited by humans and gave us dominion over the planet’s creatures and resources. I, for one, find it hard to believe a supreme being would create such diverse nonhuman beauty just so we could rape and pillage it.
To quote XTC:
Dear God, don’t know if you noticed, but
Your name is on a lot of quotes in this book
And us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look
Homo sapiens represent less than 1% of all living things, but our footprint is enormous. We stomp about in oversized clown shoes. Our global ecological footprint surpasses Earth’s biocapacity by some 35%, and that percentage continues to rise, rapidly. We aren’t thinking clearly.
Humans currently use as much ecological resources as if we lived on 1.8 Earths. The United States is running a biocapacity deficit of minus 110%. It’s not a wise way to live.
Earth’s sixth mass extinction is being driven by our relentless burning of fossil fuels and our unsustainable use of land and water.
As our population has grown and become more technologically advanced, we have taken a larger toll on the rest of the natural world, according to the University of California, Berkeley, initiative Understanding Evolution.
We have encroached on or wiped out the habitats of countless other species. We have released pollutants into the air, soil, and water. We have changed the atmosphere and climate. All this inconsideration is rapidly disrupting the planet’s systems at global scales.
It’s no surprise then that nonhuman extinction rates have risen drastically since we started burning fossil fuels two and a half centuries ago. Nonhuman life, which we need to survive, is and will be harmed by the climate crisis in countless ways. We also have been and will be adversely impacted, but ignorance is bliss.
“We are responsible for the harms we inflict on others, human or nonhuman, as a matter of basic justice,” the authors of the February white paper wrote. “In the context of climate change, there is a special injustice associated with neglecting harms that are imposed on others who bear no responsibility for these changes and have no voice in the decisions that worsen them. This is true of animals, who are entirely excluded from climate policy deliberations despite experiencing significant harms from climate change and not being at all responsible for such global shifts.”
We preach morality, but leave it for dead in a back alley.
Earlier this year record-breaking temperatures and successive heat waves killed thousands of flying foxes across South Australia as the mammals struggled to cope with the fiery conditions.
Last month the White House’s head pharisaic held a non-public meeting of the “God Squad” — a committee of agency sycophants with the power to veto protections for species on the brink of extinction — to terminate protections for endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico. The regime has invoked national security — as it does for all of its illegality — to kill more life.
Rice’s whales, one of the rarest whales on the planet with only about 50 individuals left, are year-round Gulf of Mexico residents. The killer move was made to reward the fossil fuel industry, whose products are overheating the ocean and the atmosphere. The Guardian reported the decision could result in the first extinction of a whale species in North American waters in 300 years.
At the nation’s northern border, in the Great Lakes area, Rep. Tim Walberg, MAGA-Mich., has introduced a bill to kill double-crested cormorants, because the birds eat fish meant for anglers and commercial fisheries.
Waterbirds aren’t the only species Walberg wants to annihilate. He opposes any humanitarian aid to ease the suffering in Gaza, and has said there should be a Hiroshima-style nuclear attack on the oppressed territory.
“We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick,” the former pastor and MAGA zealot said at a town hall meeting last month.
Think about what the means. Women, children, senior citizens, mothers and fathers, people with disabilities dead. Endangered species such as Asiatic cheetahs, Pallas cats, Baluchistan black bears, Caspian red deer, Persian leopards, Persian fallow deer closer to extinction. Hedgehogs, the Iranian leopard, brown bears, Asian black bears, reptiles, amphibians killed.
So many of us enjoy peddling death and destruction. It’s sick.
Earth is losing animal and plant species at an astonishing rate. The planet is in a biodiversity crisis. The extinction rate of species is now about 1,000 times higher than before humans ruthlessly colonized the planet.
We need to respect the voiceless. A little empathy and understanding goes a long way. We can’t keep smothering nonhuman life, or each other.
Ecosystems — mature forests, coastal wetlands, rivers, mangroves, kelp forests, the Amazon rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef, Narragansett Bay — and fauna such as flying foxes, Rice’s whales, double-crested cormorants, bears, bees, monarch butterflies, northern spotted owls, eastern spadefoots, wood turtles, bald eagles, and bats don’t need our protection. They need protection from us.
We have the moral obligation to share this space with everyone and everything. Humans don’t own the third rock from the sun, despite what some Bible-thumpers may believe. We need to give the natural world room to live and breathe.
The co-authors of a 2020 study, including eminent ecologist and population scientist Paul Ehrlich, who died last month, didn’t sugarcoat the biological mess we have created.
“The ongoing sixth mass extinction may be the most serious environmental threat to the persistence of civilization, because it is irreversible,” they wrote. “Thousands of populations of critically endangered vertebrate animal species have been lost in a century, indicating that the sixth mass extinction is human caused and accelerating. The acceleration of the extinction crisis is certain because of the still fast growth in human numbers and consumption rates.”
They also noted that “species are links in ecosystems, and, as they fall out, the species they interact with are likely to go also.” That warning includes humans.
Humans are driving biodiversity loss among all species across the planet, according to a 2025 synthesis of more than 2,000 studies. The study, which accounted for nearly 100,000 sites across all seven continents, found that human activities have resulted in “unprecedented effects on biodiversity.”
The exhaustive global analysis covered five human-led drivers of decline: habitat change; direct exploitation of resources such as hunting and fishing; climate change; pollution; and invasive species.
We’re paving paradise to put up a parking lot.
Note: Mother Nature is painfully aware of our presence, and defensive measures have been implemented. An excruciating tropical disease called chikungunya can now be transmitted by mosquitoes across much of Europe. Higher temperatures due to the climate crisis mean infections are now possible for more than six months of the year in Spain, Greece, and other southern European countries, and for two months a year in southeast England. Continuing global heating means it is only a matter of time before the disease expands farther. Chikungunya causes severe and prolonged joint pain, which is extremely debilitating and can be fatal in young children and older adults.
Frank Carini can be reached at [email protected]. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.
s there any prospect of saving much biodiversity? Give me hope!
Nature can be resilient. When COVID shut down mst traffic and aviation there were reports of sitting wild animals reclaiming space.
But its back to business as usual, or worse considering the wars, and the population is still growing (about 70 million more per year now) and the fools in power want to force women to have even more kids. Madness!
Very accurate and sad. Nicely written article.
Amen and Amen. I interpreted that Bible instruction as we were supposed to CARE for the Earth. And all of her creatures.
Trump claims national security for every stupid thing he wants to do. But the way to improve national security is to get rid of Trump and all of his cronies. Trump wants to kill you, boil the planet, tank the economy and destroy democracy. We need to stop him before he succeeds.
Actually Frank, I find this article to be rather disappointing. Yes, the world is in a biodiversity crisis and it’s good to remind people because their governments have yet to recognize the issue. But enough of the hand-wringing! What do you want your readers to do about it? There are no biodiversity coordinating councils, no mandates to state agencies to address the biodiversity crisis. Greg just wants to blame Trump for everything and seems to think when we get rid of him things will magically get better.
EcoRI NEWS is a Rhode Island publication, so why are you not addressing the biodiversity crisis IN Rhode Island?
Last week, I sent a letter to the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources as testimony regarding the Natural Forest Protection Act introduced in the 2026 session, the fifth iteration of this bill. Once again, this bill will not pass due to its overwrought complexity, but the points it raises regarding reestablishing the Natural Heritage Program and revitilizing the Natural Areas Protection Act of 1993 are valid issues that can be addressed – Without Legislation! Both of these could be accomplished by a simple resolution from the legislature to the director of DEM. What the citizens of this state should wonder about, why hasn’t this already occurred?
In my letter, I described how the Natural Heritage Program was formed to inventory the state’s biodiversity, the plants, animals, and ecosystems of Rhode Island. But the results of our research also told us what has been lost from Rhode Island. It is a grim report. Just focusing on plants, more than 80 have been lost since the 1800s. And the losses continue, another 80 plants are known only from single sites and all are expected to be gone in the next decade. Over one hundred and sixty plants – about 10% of the native flora. Gone, and never coming back.
These numbers are to be expected in a highly urbanized, small place. But the trends seen in Rhode Island are being recognized throughout the region as Rhode Island has become the shining example of how NOT to preserve biodiversity. And most disappointing about all this, nobody in Rhode Island cares. NOBODY!
The only places left to protect biodiversity are State management areas, Audubon refuges, TNC preserves and Federal wildlife refuges, but all these are managed NOT for biodiversity but for natural resources. Commodities. Wood and wildlife. Greed is not limited to the fossil fuel industry. When these groups do not recognize the biodiversity crisis (and they don’t) then the citizens who rely on biodiversity for their quality of life need to take action. More than ever, we need to designate the state’s most valuable natural areas on “Protected” Lands to prevent their despoilment by misguided management actions.
My letter to the House committee was copied to the state’s conservation organizations. It is time their members begin questioning the decisions of the groups they support. I also copied ecoRI News. Maybe you can pay a little more attention to what is going on in Rhode Island. I doubt there are very many Rhode Islanders who give two shits about cormorants in the Great Lakes, but who might care about similar outrages occurring in their own state.
Several years ago, I sat down with Langevin and expressed the very concern that I wanted the politicians to even acknowledge that we are mid mass-extinction (it doesn’t happen overnight folks) and that this is much much worse than any arguments about who made the climate choice happen. A mass extinction is a huge red flag that needs to be addressed. It is not about biodiversity, it is about a reorganization of species and playing god with which get to live and which get to die. Do our choices make us gods or do we take care of our home? Each and every one of us makes millions of choices each and every day. Listen to your hearts and mind not your wallets or other parts. Our choices matter, all of them.
First, Rick and Frank, I know you both (although I have not met you personally). You are good, caring, knowledgeable human beings. What I say below is not a “dig” to either of you. I respect and honor both of you. However, I must state my opinion. (Disagree with me or get angry with me, if you need too.)
I don’t usually comment on publications, but today I must. First of all, Rick and Frank, I believe that you are both on the same page. Perhaps you don’t realize it? Frank, your opinion encompasses (in my humble opinion) the larger picture (i.e., the “rape”, my word, of the planet) versus Rick, your opinion focusing on Rhode Island. You are both right.
A long time ago, during my time as an environmental engineer, I learned from a very wise IBM environmental engineer, that in order to make changes, you have to look at the WHOLE UGLY picture. You have to get angry and do what you can do to make people listen. If you do it correctly, it is more likely that those readers will take action…even if it simply/only making donations to non-profit organizations who agree with the donors. (And every bit helps.)
I also learned to trust that in order to “go to the moon, you must shoot for the stars”. I believe that this is what Frank is doing, whether he knows it or not.
I respect both of you, Frank and Rick. Again, I believe that both of you are in agreement. However, “disappointing” is not a word I would have chosen. “Hand-wringing” is another phrase/word I would not have chosen. Rick, it is true what you say about “there are no biodiversity coordinating councils, no mandates to state agencies to address the biodiversity crisis”. “What do you want your readers to do about it?” is your question to Frank. I must ask to you, Rick, respectfully, what can/should your readers to do about it?
I, too, have written testimony to the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources concerning environmental issues. If I had to guess, over the years, I have submitted at least 20. It doesn’t seem like much, Rick, but I am doing my best. You are right about the Natural Heritage Program. Sad.
As far as the State Management areas protecting biodiversity, is it really? The state allows hunting on most if not all those areas. Hell, just in Burrillville, there are 8,000 acres of DEM management areas that allow hunting. There are other state management areas that are planning on making mountain biking trails. Also, just hiking trails are made—trees cut down, trails over wetland areas. Shouldn’t there be a “Biodiversity Expert” monitoring these projects? Nope. (You are right, in my opinion, Rick…the state management areas and others that you mentioned “are managed NOT for biodiversity but for natural resources…Commodities. Wood and wildlife.”) Does the DEM even have or had a “Biodiversity Expert” employee? Maybe that is something that we should all look into?
Also, the state environmental agencies (like the RI DEM) are not receiving the federal funds that they used too. How can the RI DEM “afford” new responsibilities? How many times have I read written testimony from Director Gray stating that the DEM “doesn’t have the resources” to take on a new project—like keeping track of artificial turf projects, for example?
Also, what you, Rick, say about “nobody in Rhode Island cares”—“NOBODOY!”—is not true. I know multiple RI residents who care and who are doing their best to help any way they can. And for the record, I do “give two shits about cormorants in the Great Lakes”.
Bottom line: Humanity is a parasite on Earth. This species (humanity) is greedy, selfish, and believes it (humanity) is more important than anything else on the planet. Most human beings do not care about water pollution, air pollution, biodiversity of other species, chemicals (like PFAs) being dumped onto the ground and into the waters. The fossil fuel industry and other corporations are killing us. Hell, we are killing us. And, frankly, I believe that we deserve what we get… extinction of the humanity. It is the only thing that will save the rest of Earth.
So, it is not just Rhode Island residents and politicians who are not giving a shit. It is every town, city, state AND the federal government (“Drill, baby, drill”). And, so what IS the answer? Is it going to the moon and Mars? Nope… lets save Earth first!
Is it too late for EARTH? I hope not. I cry for my grandchildren’s future.
Again, Rick and Frank and anyone else reading this, what should/can we, residents and environmentalists alike, do? Please, tell me/us. The politicians are not listening. Also, vote for the politicians who will help save EARTH/environment. This is NOT a political issue.
Perhaps we should just sit back and watch our/the Earth’s demise? Not me though. I will fight to save the environment/Earth until my last dying breath. I believe that you, Rick and Frank, will do the same.
Peace.