Humans are better than animals

Sorry for late delivery of this argument: I flew to New York to visit family during Christmas. To correct my opponents reasoning, "humans' advanced thinking does not benefit the common good." Whether humans' ability to think clearly and rationally is objectively great, there is no "common good" when it comes to inter-species contact. If you have ever watched the PBS program "Nature", you know that it is usually a zero-sum game when it comes to survival. Our skills are good for US and that is what matters. My opponent also said, "the Earth will crumble to global warming in a couple decades", which is completely null and void because global warming is a natural phenomenon that has been occurring since the end of the last ice age 14,000 years ago. I will not debate whether global warming is a real threat (or as real as eco-freaks make it out to be), nor if it is humans' fault- that is not the purpose of this debate (however, for the record, human beings are innocent in the climate change theory). My opponent then went further, "we single handedly destroyed billions of years of progress to produce life forms as they are today". Now, the term "progress" was used very, very loosely here. Progress as in "the evolution and random turn of events that resulted in the current state of things"? If that is what you mean, then what "we" have done is merely played our part in evolution- the weak are trampled and the strong go on to victory. It may seem wrong to justify it like that but be REALISTIC, human beings are a species like all others that is fighting against all odds for survival, we just happened to be WINNING, sorry about that. Environmentalists and the irrationalists like them enjoy weighing the benefit of one INDIVIDUAL thing against the burden of the entire COLLECTIVE thing (as in, "is the iPhone 6 really better than the commonwealth of everything?"). This can get annoying to rational people, so allow me to turn the tables. Is the entire production of everything that supports BILLIONS of people all over the world that has lasted throughout human history and has benefited countless people just like your self better than preserving a certain sub-species of cheetahs? Also, my opponent said that "in a couple million years, we've destroyed this planet" as a rebuttal to my statement that "we own this planet". I was speaking metaphorically, as in our immense power over the planet, and my opponent took this literally and came up with an even DUMBER statement: "we've destroyed the planet". Really? We've destroyed it? Because when I look around, I see people shopping at supermarkets and living in heated, lighted homes and working with easy tasks instead of hunting for buffalo. I see barren land (objectively, of course) being transformed into neighborhoods that help families and individuals live lives that the kings of 500 years ago (before mass pollution) could never dream of. Then my opponent said something so hypocritical, and really gave his debate away: "Many humans do live on the brink of starvation, fighting predators to survive another day". My opponent advocates environmentalism, which supports only those who live in such a way; you outlined a global tragedy that can only be solved by human beings who do NOT support environmentalism. When mining and manufacturing companies move into impoverished villages, they pay off the landowners and villagers and often build houses worth much more in order to give the villagers a place to live. Environmentalists constantly try to stop this with lawsuits. By your logic, all people should live like that. You said that humans invented war. In a strong sense of the word, yes, you are correct. Yet, does this not stem from a purpose? Ideas. People have ideas, sometimes political or religious. These ideas have gotten us very far, indeed. Sometimes, however, people have conflicting ideas and one of them wants to force his ideas on the other. This results in a war. You have proven yourself wrong, by admitting that humans are the only species that have ideas to fight about. Most bad things that have been done by humans (such as genocide) have been done by irrationalists (like yourself). Collectivism, communism, subjectivism, environmentalism, nationalism, racism, are all things that cause wars and devalue man. All of these things fall under the category of irrationalism, they are forms of philosophy that the Nazis follow. The bad deeds of a few should not reflect poorly on the good done by everyone else. However, you are a collectivist and believe that humans, plants, animals, sand, and communists are all the same in terms of rights. There is no debating here.