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Yet now we are responsible for damage to the planet from many quarters. Whether it is technology, agriculture, industry, or humans own weapons of self-destruction, there are no doubts they we have played a huge part in the demise of many species and are pushing earth to breaking point.
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A more objective assertion would be that we are responsible for changing the planet. Whether it is damage is in the "mind" of the beholder. Each species alters the environment usually in a way that over sufficiently long periods of time will tend to work to the demise of the species. We are capable of monitoring the effects we are generating, guessing at corrective action, and monitoring whether that is working---much moreso than other species. We are neither a mistake nor a masterpiece and evolution, exclusive of our skill, cares not a whit. Evolution under our influence will tend to perpetuate us over an ever increasing volume of the universe in a widening variety of conditions. We have found evolution's rudder, but we have a lot to learn about operating it.
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For those inclined to oppose human meddling with the structure of the universe or the composition and configuration of objects and groups of objects within the universe, consider:
Whether there is a limit to the magnitude of a modulation of chaos below which order remains invariant? Or, is order but a fiction invented by perspectives applied over finite, however large, time intervals?
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