Humans can't really make an impact on the world.

Humans have undeniably made a massive impact on the world, as evidenced by their ability to alter the environment through climate change, which has raised global temperatures, melted ice caps, and increased the frequency of natural disasters, while deforestation and pollution have destroyed ecosystems, driven species to extinction, and filled the oceans with plastic waste, all of which demonstrate humanity’s ability to reshape the planet on a global scale; furthermore, human technological advancements have fundamentally changed the way we live, from the internet connecting billions of people and reshaping communication, business, and culture, to medical breakthroughs that have eradicated diseases, extended lifespans, and improved overall quality of life, to space exploration, which has proven that humanity has the potential to expand beyond Earth and affect the universe itself, which would be impossible if humans had no real impact; in addition, history has been shaped by human decisions, as seen in major sociopolitical changes such as the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, feminism, and revolutions that have overturned governments and altered the course of entire nations, while individual leaders and thinkers, like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Albert Einstein, have left legacies that continue to influence millions, proving that human actions can change not only their immediate surroundings but also the trajectory of the entire world; moreover, humanity’s dominance over ecosystems further cements its impact, as humans have hunted species to extinction, introduced invasive species that have disrupted ecological balances, and transformed vast landscapes into cities, farms, and industrial zones, demonstrating our unparalleled ability to reshape the natural world in ways no other species has; beyond that, the potential for existential threats driven by human actions, such as nuclear war, artificial intelligence surpassing human control, and bioweapons capable of mass destruction, shows that humans are not just influencing the present but could determine the very survival of civilization itself, while our advancements in space colonization, genetic engineering, and artificial intelligence suggest that we are on the verge of shaping the future of not only our planet but possibly life beyond it, making it impossible to argue that humans do not leave a lasting, undeniable impact on the world.

Ecosystems recovery undeniably quickly from environmental disturbances, case in point being Mount St. Helens, where after the eruption life returned faster than expected prior, though it will take at least a century before the ecosystem itself recovers completely. Also, abandoned regions and deforested areas see natural reforestation within mere decades, when human pressure subsides it bounces back. Vegetation and wildlife reclaim abandoned cities in a few years or decades. Human population and industry are also extremely concentrated, and vast swaths of earth are relatively untouched and can buffer small impacts. Urban scrawl occupies but a small fraction of the planet, Earth is still changing axially due to natural process.

A SINGLE large volcano can release more particulate matter than years of human pollution, and earthquakes reshape land in megalithic ways that will never be rivaled by human ingenuity. We also experience natural climate cycles like the El Nino and La Nina cycles that completely confound short timescaled-human shifts. Roads, building, and all infrastructure need constant maintenance and without such they degrade rapidly in decades, urban ruins become structurally ill-advised and overgrown in less than a century in ways that completely overshadow that humans were ever there. Electronic waste also corrodes and becomes part of the environment, and space debris eventually de-orbit and burn up in the atmosphere.

Empires like the Romans and Mayans were once mighty and vast, but most structures have been reclaimed for the most part. They did not perpetually change Earth or its landscapes, and the fact is that even considering the far more vast size and advancement of humanity, the destruction that it brings with it, humans would simply not leave more than a minimal or fragmentary trace after a larger timescale that would actually matter to Earth. Any destruction they cause will be overshadowed by the Earth and its natural processes. Society is fleeting in this way.

While it is true that ecosystems can recover from environmental disturbances over long periods, the speed and extent of recovery are nowhere near fast enough to negate the long-term consequences of human actions, as seen with deforestation in the Amazon, where the destruction is outpacing natural regrowth, or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which will not naturally disappear within any reasonable timescale, and while Mount St. Helens showed life returning sooner than expected, full recovery is still measured in centuries, whereas human-caused destruction, such as nuclear disasters like Chernobyl, leaves regions uninhabitable for thousands of years, far beyond natural volcanic recovery rates; furthermore, while abandoned areas like Chernobyl do see some wildlife returning, they are still deeply contaminated by radiation, proving that human impact is not simply erased by time, and though urbanization may occupy only a fraction of the planet, the effects of industrialization extend far beyond city boundaries through air pollution, ocean acidification, and climate change, all of which are measurable and ongoing; additionally, while natural events like volcanic eruptions can release more particulate matter than years of human pollution, human activity continuously releases carbon dioxide and methane at rates that exceed historical volcanic activity over time, contributing to climate shifts that are not just part of natural cycles but are fundamentally altering weather patterns, sea levels, and global temperatures in a way that no singular volcano could sustain long-term; and while infrastructure does degrade and get overtaken by nature, the remnants of human civilization are far more enduring than past empires, as demonstrated by our nuclear waste, plastic pollution, and space debris, all of which will persist for thousands, if not millions, of years, marking a significant and lasting human footprint that will outlast even many natural changes to the planet; and while past civilizations like the Romans and Mayans saw their structures crumble, their impacts on agriculture, language, and technology persist today, and unlike them, modern humanity has expanded into nearly every biome, altering the genetic diversity of species through artificial selection, genetic engineering, and habitat destruction, making it impossible for Earth to revert to a pre-human state even over geological timescales, proving that human influence is not just temporary, but fundamentally transformative in a way that no other species or natural event has achieved.

Correct, speed and ecosystem recovery is not fast enough to negate the long-term consequences of human actions, however, I made the presumption that by impact you meant an impact that would last essentially indefinitely, which means that the ecosystem will outlive humanity and eventually wipe all traces of it from Earth. The thousands of years necessary to outlast chernobyls radioactivity are nothing on the time scale of the Earth. The same applies to plastic waste in the ocean. Over tens of thousands of years, volcanic activity, tectonics, erosion, and biological succession will inevitably bury/dilute/transform anthropogenic materials leaving no trace.

Flood basalts, asteroid impacts, glaciations, etc, have all done planet wide changes that completely dwarf our current anthropogenic levels in scale, albeit over longer timescales. Earth has always rebounded from catastrophies, and this resilience will outlive human shifts. Silicate rock weathering, carbon sequestration, and evolution will eventually re-balance the atmosphere over geologic time. Thousands and millions of years are not permanent for the Earth, only for a human point of view. All of those materials, nuclear waste, plastic, space debris, will inevitably be transformed and destroyed/buried beyond recognition.

Pre-human conditions are not an ecological end goal, mass extinctions in the past have led to divergent life, even if many species go extinct, evolution will fill those niches with new life-forms which gets rid of the uniqueness of human assaults on nature. Reforestation will eventually reclaim the Amazon, in geologic time, humans will not maintain destructiveness indefinitely.

Cultural legacies are all human domain, this means that once humans transform or decline these footprints will either vanish, or be beyond recognition. Evolutionary processes will still continue no matter what and eventually these modified species will be either erased or assimilated, and such is the end of all species over time. Given a few thousand-ten thousand-hundred thousand years without humanity, they will be buried. And I presume this is the end point of yours, that we will have a lasting impact within the geologic time scale, I hope that I did not misinterpret this.