When humans inevitably go extinct, plants and animals will not only continue to exist, they will thrive. Without our mass combustion of fossil fuels, our continuing evasion of natural ecosystems, our overall consumption of every discovery made and our astounding mounds of wastes, the Earth as an ecosystem would blossom.
Humans are most definitely not a keystone species. The removal of our species may determine the dramatic shift of an ecosystem, which is the partial definition of a keystone species, but we are most certainly not a species that plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community. We are merely a dot on a 4.5 billion year timeline. The Earth has existed and remained resilient well before us, when dinosaurs roamed the land. After we “leave”, the land will repair its wounds and forget us, just as we forgot it.
About humans NOT being a keystone species (10 years later), I completely agree that the planet would do better without us. We are more like the ungulates in Yellow Stone who over populated and nearly destroyed the ecosystem than we are like the wolves which when re-introduced created balance and returned the park to its previous glory.
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