Scale matters. Species are currently going extinct at a rate orders magnitude greater than the historical average, due to humans. This breaks normal feedback loops and is absolutely something to be concerned about, even if you value all non-human intelligent life at zero.
> Species are currently going extinct at a rate orders magnitude greater than the historical average
Nobody has a good idea how many species there are currently, let alone how many there were in the past and how many of them went extinct. Estimates for the current species count are from 3 to 100 million[0], which is a range too wide to be useful in this context.
Of the mass extinction events in Earth's history, we may be peeking above the baseline rate[1]; the most severe statement we can make is that vertebrate mammals don't appear to be doing very well in recent times, which stands to reason, considering that Homo sapiens is by far the most competitive vertebrate mammal, doing a good job of crowding others out. But there's a lot of life and biodiversity outside of vertebrate mammals.
