Isn't this just how life on Earth works tho?
>Of all species that have existed on Earth, 99.9 percent are now extinct.
>Of all species that have existed on Earth, 99.9 percent are now extinct.
There were other, pure bred herds (e.g. Yellowstone, Canadian, etc).
And as this points out, the remnants of hybridization efforts were minimal, even in the direct Goodnight, Jones, and Bedson herds:
>> "These brief experiments form the basis for the controversy surrounding cattle genetic introgression in bison today. A study conducted for her Doctoral Dissertation by Lauren Dobson of Texas A&M University concluded that bison descended from those herds have the equivalent of 1 percent cattle genetic introgression within their genome." https://bisoncentral.com/advantage-item/ranchers-role-in-bis...
At the end of the day, bison didn't take (genetically or economically) to hybridization, as the hybrids were less hardy than pure bred bison.
An extinction twofer!
native Americans
So for instance the most popularly known mass extinction event was the dinosaurs, like caused by an asteroid impact some ~15km large. If there was such an asteroid on an impact course today, we could probably detect it a bit before it impacted - but not do a whole heck of a lot more. We could launch every single nuke we have and it would be like throwing baseballs at a semi-truck. By contrast when it lands, it would be the equivalent of hundreds of millions of nukes going off, and the ash of the impact would completely blot out the sky. Those who survived the initial impact would die from either starvation, freezing, or lack of oxygen as all plants and wildlife gradually died off.
Anyhow, space tech is important. And we're only able to achieve such thanks to human industrialization and spread. Paradoxical, but such is the nature of all technological progress which invariably brings problems ultimately only solved by even more advances which, again, bring their own problems. It makes life feel like a game, or maybe we just make games modeled after life.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Extinction_intensity.svg [from the page at] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event
All of those were caused by global Earth-level geological events or extraterrestrial objects such as massive asteroids. The latest extinction event is caused by a single species. It is absolutely an exceptional extinction event and the only one of its kind.
> Human industrialization is certainly causing plentiful destruction, yet it will also likely be the one thing that may possibly save the lives of countless species.
Technology will never not create more problems as it attempts to solve problems caused by other technology.
Also, the first [1] (and one of the most extreme) extinction events ever was indeed caused by a single species, cyanobacteria. Prior to the evolutionary development of photosynthesis, there was plentiful simple life on the planet. The evolutionary emergence of photosynthesis resulted in a dramatic and rapid introduction of oxygen into Earth's atmosphere which was exceptionally toxic to the existing abiotic species. We only think of oxygen as a good thing, because we evolved in its presence. If there was an advanced species that managed to evolve in abiotic circumstance, we'd probably look as weird to them as a creature that breathes gaseous arsenic would look to us!
Is more like how dead on Earth works
If the goal is returning the planet to their original status of lifeless floating rock for billions of years, we are doing a spectacular job in just a glimpse of time. I can imagine how puzzling this will appear in the fossil record some millions years from now.