Simile is a figure of speech in which two things are compared. It uses words such as <em>like </em>and <em>as</em>. The simile in the example sentence is the phrase "you swooned like an old lady."
A metaphor is a direct comparison. For example, "you are an old lady." A paradox is a statement which contradicts itself. For instance, "false truth." Finally, personification is the attribution of human characteristics to something that is not human, or the personification of an abstract human feature. For example, "the bear spoke to the young girl."
The author is saying that because of humans and the ways they are impacting earth is causing irreparable changes like causing animals to go extinct, etc.
