We are not Destroying the planet

My thought of today regarding those who glibly try to impress by using superlatives.

This might be more of a criticism regarding semantics but it does irk me those who spout we are destroying the planet at every opportunity. We are not. We may be exterminating many species, we may be changing the climate and having a negative effect on the ecosphere and biosphere. But we're not destroying the planet. 

Nature is pervasive it is also extremely adaptable. You only have to look at lost civilisations of the past that have been overwhelmed and reinstalled back into the natural environment. It has to be remembered that very far in the past the oxygen level was at 40% not the 21% it is now. During this period, it has been said, that there was no ice on the planet -even at the poles. There have been ice ages where much of the land was buried under kilometres of ice. 

The world, as it currently stands has life in every corner, under the icy oceans, in volcanic vents as well as most other environments we have tested. So I reiterate - life is pernicious. If we, Homo sapiens, as a species, decide to over breed ourselves into extinction and become consigned to the same fate as Neanderthal; we may take many other species with us, we may have changed the global atmosphere significantly before our demise. But the planet, Earth, the body in orbit around the sun will do very nicely without us.