No, Horn, that's not right. What I WANT to hear is that the living world is not being destroyed by our civilization, which is also foreclosing the human future. If you look at what scientists are saying about this, though, you'd be as concerned as I am. The 6th extinction is not a "meme". It's a fact.

"Net loss of species over time"? What exactly does this mean? Your example of the spread of an invasive species--the Monterey pine--into alien ecological niches doesn't exactly ease my angst about this. Species are not interchangeable; they evolved in specific contexts over millennia. Moving them around so that they supplant indigenous species is often utterly disastrous.

For instance, lampreys, zebra mussels and Asian carp in the Great Lakes. kudzu in the American South, pythons in the Everglades, and rabbits and Cane Toads in Australia have also found association with humans extremely beneficial, but they've also really been a terrible problem for the ecosystems they invade.