Protecting wildlife is significant in the bigger picture because … "we don't want to be the keystone species that collapses our own ecosystem with arrogance."

This from Kari Birdseye, the National Press Secretary / Associate Media Director of Earthjustice.

Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law organization dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment.

The quotation (above and below) were taken from a Q&A with Kari Birdseye posted on Earthjustice's website in 2013, the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). I missed this when it came out, and chances are, so did you.

One thing most people don't know about the ESA but should is … that way back in 1973, the House Committee Report on the bill that eventually became the ESA said it best, almost poetically:

"Man's presence on the Earth is relatively recent, and his effective domination over the world's life support systems has taken place within a few short generations. Our ability to destroy, or almost destroy, all intelligent life on the planet became apparent only in this generation. A certain humility, and a sense of urgency, seem indicated."

So now, in the Endangered Species Act's 41st year, how about less arrogance and more humility and urgency!