all the national geographic documentaries about wildlife, all the books we read as kids about lions and tigers and gorillas - we always thought there is a vast and rich and enormous mammal fauna covering the entire planet.
truth is, the only thing covering the planet is us, on an exponential rate. mammal "wildlife" is a folklore, a fairy tale, a facade - an utopia from the past. welcome to the Anthropocene, get ready for a complete artificial Star Trek like environment. forests are no primeval forests but artificially planted timberland. nature is reduced to curated parks and golf course -like landscapes. we were part of nature when we gatherers and hunters. we have chosen to eat the fruit of knowledge and got kicked out of paradise. we've built our own nature. with back jack and hookers.
this train has left the station. nature is gone. the only question left to answer is how much nature we need to survive as a species. how much diversity of mammals or insects is needed for humankind to survive? maybe more than is left presently, maybe less - we will find out in the coming centuries.
this is not the usual "we are killing the planet, let's go back to gatherers and hunters to save nature" environmentalists stupidity (which unfortunately can serve as a nice source of future "eco-fascism" suppression of human rights) or the usual cultural pessimism tune of "we are going down". it is just a fact that we have to acknowledge - nature is gone, curated "nature" is the new reality.
also not suggesting that we should not try to treat animals more ethically or that we shouldn't try to preserve nature where it still exists. all this is important but we cannot escape "our" nature - which is to create our own environment globally.