Cross Breeds

How soon before the last living animals become extinct?

It seems to me we are become ever more proficient at destroying everything we touch. I wonder if the animals will have to make a final last stand and die en masse defending the little bit of freedom they still enjoy. The animals enjoying thier freedom is a relative term as in "They are free to move from point a to point b in pursuit of whatever there is to eat".

Public Comments

1. A slightly over the top question, perhaps. Animals do not "enjoy freedom". The spend most of their lives eating, avoiding being eaten, competing and breeding. They do not spend much time enjoying themselves.
2. It is true that humans have the "anti-midas" touch and sooner or later, all reasources will be used up and people will have to shift to solar or other renewable sources. However, the time for when all animals become extinct wil be far, far into the future. It will certainly be past the end of human existance, because the vast diversity of animals (including multi-cellular and unicellular) have evolved to for such specialized situations that it would be almost impossible to "extinct" them all. Sure, humans can nuke animals or produce some widespread poison, but cockroaches and other "extreme" species can easil survive the intial blast and certainly the aftermath. Unicellular organisms on the other hand, reproduce so quickly that mutations are not uncommon and a new resistance strain to the poision would easily pop-up. This is not unsimilar how each year we need a flu shot for the same kind of disease but different strain. However, one thing all animals need is water, aside from that, I can't think of anyother way to "extinct" them all. If somehow all the water was removed from the earth, then all the animals would, in theory, die. An event to cause this would probably destroy the earth in the process also. In conclusion, we can safely assume that animals will not make a "last stand" against the humans.
3. I will note in refutation to a prior answer that, considering the dominant biological method in humans to ensure survival is pleasure reward (endorphins), it is hardly questionable to suggest animals enjoy themselves. I should rather think it is more a case that animals -only- enjoy themselves, since they are governed more wholly by instinct than we are, and are thus constantly receiving biological rewards for satisfying the instinct for survival.