It is fascinating how centralized agriculture lies at the demise of much of human societies of the past, yet man continues to prefer such mode of excess food production. The Sumerian central farming control salinified once fertile plains into desert. The Hellenic centralization of agriculture resulted in shifting their limited farmlands from producing food to growing cash crops, causing them to become dependent on food imports. Roman latifundia effectively destroyed the backbone of their military - citizen soldier - and paved the way towards private armies. In our "global" era, it seems that the consequence of centralized, industrial agriculture will be the demise of man himself.
Is the destructive tendency of man due to the decision-makers of humanity predominantly living within their walled cities, detached from his environment and sources of food? Are irrational, environmentally destructive policies perpetuated because the rulers imagine their food materializes in warehouses and foodmarts by magic?
Much of ancient civilized cultures imagined cities as being created by gods and urbanization a divine process. Maybe the Bible is more accurate in describing urbanization as a creation by the cursed and the city as being the refugee for killers. Maybe, like in the Iliad, the city must be burned down, so that mankind can survive.
Have you read J. Donald Hughes' Environmental Problems of the Greeks and Romans? It seems right up your alley.
As far as I'm concerned, profit is the enemy where agriculture is concerned- there's more economic incentive to use environmentally destructive methods of farming and then buy more land than to maintain the same land for generations. (This isn't a blanket condemnation of the market system- if I'm going to condemn it, it will be piece by piece.) And yeah, the dissociation of so much of mankind from nature- including much of the ruling class- is responsible for a ton of the problem.
Hypothetically a green city is the optimal living arrangement for decreasing environmental impacts and reducing carbon footprints- returning to a pastoral, agrarian, or hunter-gatherer lifestyle would be immensely destructive at our current population levels. Unfortunately, practice seldom agrees to conform with theory.
I had no idea that there was an academic examination of environmental consequences of Hellenic thought!
The modern problem of misuse of terra firma lies in the concept of property ownership. In reality, even within the so-called "free-market" system, men merely rent land from the government/public, as they must pay annual tax/rent. Yet, the common perception, as well as official public policy, of modern society is "rights" to a piece of real estate with which a man may misuse the said property anyway he deems fit. And if a said piece of the Earth is not "owned" - ie international waters, public land, etc. - then the common perception incentivizes the exploitation of the public sphere.
The perverse idea that man "owns" the planet seems to be at the core of his spiritual illness.
Make sure to read the 2nd Edition, it's much better!
Ownership is one of the key ways in which we separate ourselves from nature. I'd absolutely agree that it's at the core of the spiritual disease rampant in modern civilization.