Originally Posted by Master_Shake

But why is the destruction of our species and of all life on our planet a bad thing? How can you possibly establish that scientifically?

Frankly, it would probably be best for any other intelligent life forms out in the universe if we did destroy ourselves. The last thing they need is to have some stupid human space corporation determine that their planet is home to mineral x and badly in need of massive strip mining. By eliminating ourselves from the universe we would be doing that alien planet a great favour.