Would it be better for nature if humans went extinct?

Question

Do you think the animal kingdom would benefit from our demise? There are many answers to this question depending on your viewpoint. It is completely hypothetical so please answer in accordance with the hypothesis.

Answer 1

I think Elmjunbur's answer is full of eminent common sense. He recognises the rationality of much of what you, the questioner, say - so do I. I cannot agree with the view that owing "mutuality" humans ought to be preserved and that the rest of Nature will be doomed without Man as guide. Yes, I know that the African honey bird - if that's what he's called would perish without man - but the bees would be happier! Seriously, though, very many more species would perish because of Man.

Unfortunately, Man is part of Nature, part of evolution; he has now begun to influence the course evolution in unfortunate ways.

The creatures either nurtured by Man, or parasitic upon Man, will continue to proliferate. Cattle, sheep, poultry and dogs belong to the first category. Rats, lice, cockroaches and certain kinds of flies and mosquitoes belong to the latter category - and may take over the Earth for a time after Man "has disappeared himself".

However, before that happy event Man would have driven the dodo. the kiwi, the rhinoceros, the elephant, the lion and the tiger to extinction.

Let me stress one thing, though. Nobody can predict the course evolution will take. It makes no sense to claim that Nature knows rights and wrongs. However, there is a world of values, known to man, perhaps known only to man, and postulated by man. And, for all those who feel that they are answerable for their own actions, it is very necessary that they look steadily, and objectively at what they have contributed to the direction in which the world is moving.

A belief in God is comforting - but that doesn't, ipso facto, make his existence certain, or even likely. Faith in an omnipotent deity can provide explanations for everything, but something that seems to explain everything usually explains nothing.

Yes, would that Man had never lived!

Answer 2

I believe that this earth was a big beautiful green ball until humans entered the scene. Except for humans,the other animals used the earth in order to live and raise the next generation. They left the earth in the same condition that they found it.
Without humans, the other things of nature would be able to continue on for the rest of time without destroying the land that made life possible for them. Humans are the great destroyers. We cut down forests, the home of all kinds of natures animals. We drain swamps. There is more of wildlife in a swamp than in any other type of cover.
We straighten out rivers to make navigation shorter, but cause flooding and drought. We burn fuel that causes damaging gasses. We cover large areas with concrete and asphalt, that used to be the homes of thousands of natures animals and plants.
The big problem with your question is that you're assuming that it's possible for humans to be forced out of existence without effecting the rest of nature. That won't happen. When humans poison the earth, the air, and the water to the point that human life is impossible, the rest of nature will also have to go.
Sad as it may seem, the innocent will have to suffer the same fate as the guilty. Sorry, bit that's the way it is.

Answer 3

No...they would not be better off. Animas and humans depend on a thing called mutualism and w/o humans certain birds such as teh African Honeyguide would go extinct b/c there would be no mutualistic relationship between the bird and the human. (the bird leads the human to a bees nest and the humans kills the bees and gets honey when the human is done the bird eats all the wax the bees produced along with the dead bees).

The biosphere of the world depends on the interactions of humans with animals and without both mutualism would fail leaving the world more twisted then it was.

Mutualism is in everything around us and to go and erase humans would effect it in several ways that would eventually lead to death and destruction of almost all species on this planet.

I learned this today in Ecology~

Answer 4

i'd be better if gwen stefani was extinct

Answer 5

no. who would run the animal shelters and hospitals?