Thanks for your thoughts on this. I strongly agree with what you are saying. You sound like you have read Ramez Naam’s The Infinite Resource. He argues much the case you are making. I once reviewed his book at h+ Magazine, and liked most of his ideas. I also got his thoughts on my review itself, in the comments section there.

We do not “struggle” with our environment. We live in it, and accumulated knowledge and infrastructure makes it better. Some species go extinct for various reasons, but this is not necessarily a tragedy. We are the beneficiaries of several extinctions; otherwise we’d still be scurrying in four-footed terror back to our burrows in the dark; mayhap with a stolen dinosaur egg.

Some long-term change is inevitable and not necessarily undesirable. Several factors, including us, will cause the seas to rise in the next eon. By stunting industrialization and perpetuating the exclusion of a half billion people from full mental functionality, due to acute protein deficiency in childhood, we could save ourselves the cost of jacking up Venice. Try explaining this tragic necessity in rural Bangladesh.