If industrial activity were to continue for another century or two at current rates, most of the planet's species would be extinct. Because fossil fuels are running out, however, industrial activity cannot continue at present levels for more much longer. In about fifty years or so, the Earth's population will decline to 500 million or less, because petroleum will be gone and that number is all that the planet's solar energy budget will support. The only real issue to address is whether we reach that point with a planet still filled with biodiversity, or one that is destroyed. And that outcome depends on whether the human population is reduced now, by decisive action, or in fifty years, by external factors.
Environmentalism is a lost cause.
Politicians laud as great successes the cleaning up of a polluted river or lake, or the saving of an endangered species, or the setting-aside of a nature reserve, ignoring the fact that 30,000 species are destroyed every year by mankind's activities. The global conferences and international treaties aimed at stemming the destruction of biodiversity have failed totally. The handful of committed environmental or population-reduction activists are powerless to save the planet in the face of a world dedicated to industrial activity and the generation of material wealth for human beings, regardless of the risk to other species, the environment, or even future generations of humankind. The money is on their side, and they will get their way. Because of the population explosion and industrial development, the likelihood of nuclear war is increasing dramatically, for several reasons.