This line of argument is too ubiquitous considering how disgustingly nihilistic it is. At least think about the specificity of the biosphere we live in. It’s intricate and beautiful and we are destroying all of it in its particularity for forever. We are burning and choking biomes and systems from the bottom of the ocean to Mt. Everest. Scorched Earth. The miracle of these patterns of life emerging together will be gone, and it is very specifically our fault. We are murderers for doing what we’re doing, and particularly sick ones for doing it with such clear knowledge of the consequences. Your passe attitude is an apology for a crime against nature, literally. It’s not reducible in moral weight by appealing to geological or cosmic time/scales or the ability of bacteria to survive even after we’re gone. 1. That doesn’t remove the fact of erasing such singular beings from the fabric of existence as are going extinct every day (200 species). 2. It’s also potentially not even correct. There are predictions that methane release from permafrost thaw in the arctic—a process already underway—will make the planet uninhabitable to everything including bacteria.

None of the foregoing even goes into the issue of a humanitarian, genocidal issue exploded by drought, soil collapse, flooding, and infrastructure collapse. This is in our lifetimes. It’s twisted to know these things and be so condescendingly, so cheaply and with such slime, apologetic.