And destroying ecosystems which are essential for our own species to survive is "we are well on our way to it".

it's not literal. we're in a mass extinction that's only going to get worse. earth as shorthand for the environment that supports all these creatures (including us).

This is also misleading. What's disappearing is a sustainable environment suitable for humans without advanced technology and globalized trade.

Humans are living in climate-controlled environments in Phoenix, but they wouldn't last long without (fossil-fuel based) external energy sources. Or at least there wouldn't be that many.

Absolutely!

And if it really is a global extinction event at the moment, I can't wait to see what wonderful new variants will blossom from that tabula rasa in ten to twenty million years.

Will they be less conscious or more, more or less social, more or less intelligent, more distributed intelligence like in insect societies?

Will they be smaller, smarter, more vicious?

No doubt, a deep valley is surrounded by high hills.

We can certainly do a number on a lot of the big names though.

Earth does not have nearly enough available carbon to start a greenhouse feedback loop. It won’t be at risk of Venusification for about a billion years until the Sun gets a lot hotter.

Oh, come on, give life a chance, it can't always be me, me, me.