Meanwhile, a whole lot of clueless religious morons keep on breeding like crazy to outbreed the other religions.

Never will succeed. Some people for one reason or another are just breeding machines.

I like the idea of everyone leaving Earth better.

I’ll do my part to help out ... later rather than sooner, I hope.

Save the planet from us? The real threat is us killing ourselves. The planet will in one form or another endure. We are so arrogant us humans. So sure of our own importance. Even if we burned the Earth to a crisp it would spin on. Perhaps in due time it would renew again and spawn another delusional race of monkeys. Or perhaps a coldly logical race of reptilians? Who knows. Technology is the only thing that has allowed and will allow us to continue. Will technology outstrip our tendency for destruction long enough to send us to mars and beyond? I hope so. There is great beauty in humanity. Just as there is great suffering, idiocy and viciousness. But I love us anyway for all our insanity. It is not the number of people thats the problem I think, it is the greed and hunger of those with more then enough who continue to want more.. and more and more. And not just the rich. So many Americans (and others) need the newest trinket even as there old one is fine for their needs. We need the larger TV, the shiner car, the newest fashion, the overpriced food. We pay money for a box to turn our damn lights on and monitor our lives all so we do not have to get up off our ass and move. If we were logical we would divide the Earths wealth equally to meet all HUMANS needs first before any one person or group or corporation gained a single penny of profit. But we are not logical or reasoned or moral not as a group. Unless we have a iron hand of a strong leader to lead us in that direction and even then we as soon as the mood strikes us crucify them. As individuals and small groups we are brilliant and funny but the more of us there are the stupider we get. Mobs and such. Do I think humanity should die out to save another species? No I do not. Species die off all of the time with or without us. Are we accelerating that sure we are and it sucks yet any human versus the life of a tiger? A butterfly? A bird or a lizard or a snake? I would choose the human. I chose us. We need not to die we need to strike out into the universe. Agent Smith was right we are a virus. But humanity is our virus mine and yours. And I for one want to live. Even with all of our insanity I want us to endure until we meet whatever is out beyond our solar system, our galaxy, the far reaches of space and even if we ever figure it out time. Am I a paradox of hatred and love? Sure but we all are, our species is. Insane apes everyone one.

7.6 Billion is right up there with population numbers for buffalo or passenger pigeons, shocking. The difference is that we killed those species and untold numbers of others but we are killing ourselves having started to run out of other targets I would suppose.