I am surprised that people universally seem to think animals are stupid. I am sure this is to do with the fact that we have an immeasurable sense of our importance – we have created religions in which we are just off centre of most important beings in the Universe (we have to put god there first, sadly) and we seem think the world has been put here for our pleasure.
Then we go about overlying a synthetic value system (economics) upon a valued system (nature) and proceed to destroy so much that now we argue about what can be saved. We talk endlessly about the possibility we may destroy ourselves before we find out all there is to know about the universe, we are so mindless we have to have leaders because we could never govern ourselves and all the time we denigrate animals.
I am not sure of course but I think the Earth would continue to thrive without human beings, and all the animals would continue on their merry way and prosper without human beings too. The only benefit to nature in having an animal that can build vessels that will leave the planet is to save the nature that has evolved on this planet once it falls into the sun. What a shame to have made that animal so ignorant all it will take with it is what it can eat.
And what it needs to seed new worlds but if we ever find a planet like Earth we won’t bother to take anything. Now that’s thick.
After reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, I am convinced the earth would thrive without us. While some of our environmental poisons would linger, ie plastics and rubber, most of the planet would recover nicely. We would probably lose some of the domesticated animals that depend on humans like milk cows and miniature dogs but the rest would probably be fine. I’d love to come back for a visit and see a pristine earth.
That would be quite something, though extremely dangerous!