Exceptional piece, Walt! Everything you say I agree with. In making your case though, you characterized nature as "incredibly violent" and "terribly wasteful" which got me wondering. Nature is absolutely more violent and wasteful than we think on any given uneventful or pleasant day.

However, humanity can also be violent and wasteful, although some people think we are worse. Although how can that be, as you suggest, compared to Chicxulub? And isn't homo sapiens a part of nature anyway? Why would we, as one part of nature, be worse than the other parts?

More importantly, imho, why should we judge nature as "incredibly violent" and "terribly wasteful"? Is that judgment anthropocentric? I'm tempted to say that nature, the cosmos, is an endless interplay between matter and energy. Reminds me of a line from "Watcher of the Skies" from early Genesis: "Do you judge God by his creatures when they are dead?"