They won't care. 10 million years after we wipe ourselves (and unpleasantly many of them) out, it will be hard to tell we ever existed, aside from the dip in fossil diversity right after. The raccoons might take up the yoke of sentience.
I chuckle thinking about future sapient trash-pandas discovering human landfills and worshipping the Ancient Ones who very clearly created this bounty for them. "They were so prosperous they put boxes of food on every street corner for our early ancestors."
It's possible to extend empathy to all living creatures, not just those similar to oneself. Or to put it another way, to take the view that all living things have equal value on a grand scale.
But if one takes a completely objective viewpoint, what makes humans special? We’re no different than beavers who make damns and flood a river. Sure we do it on a larger scale but are we any less “natural” than any other species? Keep in mind the fact we “care” is irrelevant and no more important than a beavers urge to build a damn. It’s all driven by genetics.
I mean oxygen producing single called organisms drastically altered the environment. They were not conscious to actually notice, but we are. But tons of species went extinct and the earth was irrevocably changed due to their presence.
Thinking humans are special on the cosmic timescale is just arrogance.
This type of self-defeatist attitude I can only imagine comes from suicidal people. It makes no sense unless the person saying it has given up on living.
I'm not talking about concerns of having a healthy environment and a clean planet.
I'm talking about population control that Malthusians want to impose so much, always on others, not on them.