While watching a History Channel documentary on prehistoric life, they mentioned that 99.9% percent of all animal species never survived the march of time. At another segment they said that only about 1 % of all animal species ever get preserved into a fossil. Perhaps they meant 1% of all living creatures get preserved as fossils. Then again, that seems rather high considering the age of the Earth and the difficulty with the formation of fossils. Then we learn that 85% of the Earth was covered by water for most of it's existence? 

I'm not quite sure what it all means logically or mathematically, but it emphasizes our insignificance and our vulnerability. Should we be looking out for ourselves or is the preservation of at most, .01 % of all species that ever existed minus those species we don't affect, which probably is in the area of 50% at the imaginable highest to a more reasonable 10%? 

There is a lot of debate as to what are our responsibilities, as there should be, but over time and considering what has come before us, do we have any significant control or management of what is to come? I don't think so.  Adaptability is the key, but when a bullet is coming your way the Earth will just swallow you up and perhaps .01x.01% if uncovered by .00000001% of those trying to look will give a shit.