> We're a part of nature like everything else in the universe.

So, then, whatever we choose to do—whether it is protecting species, ignoring them, or exterminating them—is, equally, letting nature run its course.

While reading your comment, I envisioned the Singularity arriving, and as we watch without any pain whatsoever in horror as our bodies are disassembled atom by atom along with the rest of the planet to feed the building of its computronium Dyson Sphere (for its not a monster, pfft), the AGI explaining, "I happen to be a sudden, violent shock to this solar system's ecosystem..." ;)

Semantic games can be played in either direction. Are you implying humans trying to preserve ecosystem are artificial?