In the Grand Scheme of things … humans are a cancer on this earth. Regardless of good intentions or not, humans always screw thing up in regards to our environment.
Humans are the only animals privileged enough to have the spare resources and time to view themselves with distain.
I don’t adhere to this sort of secular original sin. I don’t tell my children they are a cancer because I don’t believe it to be so, but this world is full of people who, maybe due to something deep within themselves, verbally self flaggelate. I think in the grand scheme of things, humans are just animals doing what animals do - going where their brain chemistry takes them. Our destiny seems far more under our influence than other critters, and if we are to change it for the better, it won’t come from a message of guilt.
Whether something is up or down, really requires the context of the timeline we are discussing, but when it comes to my neck of the woods, the only thing on that list that is down is mule deer. Though relative to “historic” levels, Bison used to wander the hill on which my house exists, the “Sheep Mountain” on which I grew up was named for sheep no longer there, and Griz were way more prevalent. Native fish - cutthroat, grayling, etc are down locally. I also get a anecdotal sense that Robins, bluebirds, and other songbirds are less prevalent than when I was young.
Truly though, relative to the last hundred or so years, Whitetail, elk, birds of prey, black bears, wolves - all trending up in my lifetime.
I certainly wouldn’t argue though that in the big picture, our planet isn’t in trouble.