Praise the Humble Dung Beetle

Absolutely agree with you Brien ... these are NOT nor ever were conflicting ideas. When Darwin published his treatise 'On The Origin Of Species' the Archbishop of Canterbury stated "What a magnificent way to explain the complexity in which God works!" He was an academic minded person that understood that each answer in Science raises hundreds of more questions. As such, he was more enlightened than the Church at that time by understanding the non-conflicting nature of these ideologies; sadly he was forced by the Church of Rome to recant his statement under threat of excommunication and beratement.
Kudos to you for recognising this benevolent and omnipotent distinction.

Excuse me but ... you must consider the difference between geologic time scales and the current time scales regarding rates of extinction. The millennia that allowed further evolution during previous extinction periods, witnessed niche speciation on grand scales. The current global warming, overexploitation of the earth's resources and altering of habitats and ecosystems is unprecedented in any comparison. Unless of course you are battling for Creationism in schools and deny Global Warming in the face of the ever mounting evidence, in which case it is all just a threat to an outdated mode of thinking. Thank you Newsweek for running this underreported and extremely important story.

The incredible importance of the seemingly insignificant "Dung Beetle" verified that every creature occupies an integral niche within the overall plan of a benevolent and omnipotent Creator !

Brien Comerford

The "lower" you go on the evolutionary scale the greater the ecological importance. Bugs and clams aren't half as important as bacteria and the bacteria aren't going anywhere. We always talk about the threat to the environment. Pshaw!! We're not a threat to the environment. We're only a threat to the environment IN ITS CURRENT FORM.

Life on Earth has survived despite being frozen solid, from pole to pole. It has survived inundation by noxious chemical after noxious chemical, only to adapt an immunity to or even a utility for the chemical (Oxygen was originally poisonous to Earthlings). Life has survived blackout from the sun due to asteroids and/or volcanoes. Life is definitely not threatened by the likes of us humans. We pose absolutely zero threat to "life on earth". Zero.

Extinction is a common occurence on our planet. Time and time again natural events have caused a temporary reduction in biodiversity that is followed by an explosion of adaptation and specialization.
Mankind is just the latest natural event; and a very minor one. Our impact on Earth's environment is nothing compared to a rock from outer space. The only difference between us and a space rock is that we are aware of our effect on the planet and of our impending doom as a result of our effect. But, then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe hundreds of millions of years ago some giant, self-aware, chunk of rock was hurtling towards earth only to realize that its chosen path was going to result in a mass extinction on our planet and its own obliteration. If so, it probably tried to change course only to find out its decision was too little too late. Maybe space rocks and the human species have more in common than we could ever guess.