No one cares that humans and wasps and beavers all change the landscape over time. What makes humans exceptional is that we can decide how we change the landsca

No one cares that humans and wasps and beavers all change the landscape over time. What makes humans exceptional is that we can decide how we change the landscape, understand the impacts, and can choose which impacts on nature are desirable. Animals don't have the ability to really consider the impacts of their actions on the world around them, but we do which imparts onto us a higher level of responsibility. We've already poisoned every living thing and every source of water on the planet with toxic "forever" chemicals we created. They're in the rain that falls. The body of every newborn creature is polluted by them before they draw their first breath. That's just so fundamentally different from "But look at this ant hill" that it's hard to imagine why anyone can't see what sets humanity apart or would consider that difference to be an arbitrary distinction. We're capable of causing more harm. We're capable of understanding the harms that we cause in ways other animals simply aren't. We're also capable of deciding not to cause harm. We're capable of intentionally making different choices that can help protect and preserve the environments we live in. Our deliberate choices and their impacts on the world compared to the actions and outcomes of every other animal on the plant is about as far from an arbitrary distinction as it gets.