Natural extinction

I've been thinking... while not the oldest by far, we're still a long-lived species, and inevitably we're going to see other species die in our time. While I definitely agree that we should try not to kill other species accidentally, I wonder if anyone considers whether we're saving species that were simply destined to die off?

Does anyone know about research into this? Comments in general?

The next great paradigm shift is the destruction of our race.