I mean it feels so utterly unlikely, yet we really do posses the power to eliminate or close to eliminate all life on this planet. When you look at who decides this and realize they could not decide if masks were good or bad for the spread of an airborne illness, there is more than a non zero chance we are going to destroy life on Earth. The planet of course as you stated will truly live on.

I agree that feignign optimism does feel disingenuous. The data trend is not optimistic.