I did not say there were huge amounts of life on planets all over the
Universe. I don't know what is out there yet, otherwise I would be
shouting from the Internet rooftop. But I would not bet against the
Cosmos being empty of life beyond Earth, either, based on the current
evidence we do have. As I said, even Peter Ward thinks alien bacteria
is pretty common if not outright intelligent beings.

We have found just over 300 alien solar systems so far, out of 400
billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Most of the worlds we have found
were due to the fact that with our current methods of detection, we can
only see the really big ones. Saying that most solar systems are not like
ours because of this is like saying that because you can only detect whales
in the ocean, they must be the dominant life form in the seas.

I have often heard that argument about how humanity would become
much more careful of life on Earth if we found out that we were the
only living things around. We don't know if anyone else exists now and
I don't see industries and nations being all that careful with nature, at
least the non Western ones. What I can imagine is our species going
nuts in terms of eating up resources and territory if it ever did turn out
that We Are Not Alone, using the excuse of God must have made the
Universe just for us therefore we can do whatever we please.