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If you're skeptical about this, ask yourself this: Given that many species are 'in a perilous position', what is the selective pressure (a la natural selection) that these creatures are failing to adapt to? We would need a global mechanism that has arisen fairly quickly, especially on an evolutionary timescale, to explain what we're seeing from the amount and types of creatures endangered. The most compelling answer is direct and indirect competition with humans as our population skyrockets and we compete for land (and we never lose). We also inadvertantly introduce invasive exotics, like kudzoo ("The plant that ate Georgia"), fire ants, and killer bees that are really good at taking advantage of an environment that has nothing to contain them.
There are many reasons species can go extinct, but as we look at the current mass extinction I don't see how we could be absolved as the primary cause.
Of course some species thrive where we thrive. Pigeons, rats, mice, cockroaches, ants, and raccoons will plague us for as long as we're here, and some, like large populations of rabbits in Australia or deer in North America are troubling problems that are entirely our fault.
[ 11-17-2004, 03:36 PM: Message edited by: Lucern ]
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