Why is extinction important?

We should be concerned about species going extinct because if the individual wonder of each kind of living being isn't enough to awe us, it would behoove us to keep in mind that physiologically humans are more like other animals than unlike them.

Coal miners used to bring a live canary with them down into the mines to evaluate safety of the air they were breathing. If the canary keeled over dead the men knew it was time for them to get out of the mines.

Similarly, if other animal species are dying out it won't be long before human beings will start dying out, too.