Tornado Alley (PROG)

[DesertDrifter]

Our animal relatives have evolved specifically to survive in their unique environments

They did, but the environment is changing faster than adaptation can keep up with at the present time. The great extinction event that is going on means they were only adapted to "unique environments" that no longer exist. Genetic amplitude will lead to the survivor/winners... that is why aberrations that are successful go exponential when there is a genetic bottleneck.

First the generalists succeed due to their diversity of adaptations, then when they compete heavily with each other for resources or space, specializations rise again. Traits that are responsive to the changed environment will win.

So one could make the argument that the plethora of aberrations contribute greatly to the future.

Pointing to evolved behaviors in other animals gives a menu of possibilities, but most are not relevant. Bears that rip stuff up just for the heck of it do not mean that someone throwing their cell phone into a wall are really significant in terms of comparisons.

Humans as selective pressure is the way of the world now, rarely works for long, as we are greedy SOB's as a group. We shot all the passenger pigeons for market until their dependence on large numbers for protection from their evolutionarily significant predators was overcome.

But changing the environment through our activities at a scale beyond the genetic amplitude of whole classes of species... and somehow saying diversity is not good... every ecologist knows that diversity is the key to long term stability in nature.