" Some of the older people I've counseled seemed almost disappointed that humanity was spared its just ecological deserts."
"It was tough on the Schadenfreude crowd," Majewski agreed, grinning. "The ones who viewed humankind as a sort of plague organism spoiling what might otherwise have been a pretty good planet. But paleontologists tend to take a long view of life. Some creatures survive, some become extinct. But no matter how great the ecological disaster, the paradox called life keeps on defying entropy and trying to perfect itself. Hard times just seem to help evolution. "

― Julian May , The Many-Coloured Land (Saga of Pliocene Exile, #1)