Life on the Planet:
"Life wants to be"
"Life wants to be only as much"
"Life becomes extinct"
"Life goes on"
Bill Bryson, in "A short history of nearly everything", one of the best epilogues of the section on "Life".
One should read (or hear the audiobook) to appreciate these four sentences. In short, it starts from the millions of speciesof microbes which exist through some of the most adverse conditions known to humankind, just to satisfy the instinctive "want to be" ; Some organisms shut themselves down through periods and locales just so they can resurrect themselves for brief periods, only to go back to "slumber" -> "wants to be only as much" ; During the whole of earth's existence, life has experienced several major extinctions and many smaller extinction phases, only to lay the environmental foundation to rejuvenate life in more splendorous forms. Extinction is a sure thing for all life on earth, whether from external factors like meteor or comet impact, or several other myriad causes, both internal and external imbalances ; "Life becomes extinct and rejuvenates in more splendorous forms", thus "life goes on".
i cannot help but recall that this is quite akin to the MahaPralayams and Pralayams described in the Hindu religious texts. More on that later, after some due diligence and research