So With All These "Progressives" Around, Why Is The Planet Falling Apart? - Guardian

[Binkie The Clown]

7. Humanity does not have a death wish. On that we agree.

Humanity suffers from shortsightedness, which in our early prehistory, was an important survival advantage. Now, however, it is a dangerous flaw in human nature.

Humanity does not have a wish to become extinct, but humanity seems to lack a wish to prevent its own extinction.

So I was equating "failing to make a deliberate choice" with "making the deliberate choice not to act". You're right. There is a difference. I glossed over that difference "for dramatic effect." But if you insist on a literal, rather than a metaphorical claim, then you are correct.

And for the record, no species that brought about the great oxygenation event had the capacity to make the choice not to let that happen. (Of course, we, as oxygen breathers, are very glad it did happen.) We, on the other hand, have the choice to avert our own extinction.