Can the destruction of the planet be distilled down to this?

[The_jackalope]

6. The ERoEI of extraction is faaaar higher than agriculture.

Once part of humanity became convinced that growth and expansion was in their best interest, extraction became inevitable. This is because metals make rapid expansion possible through the use of weapons. Once that part of humanity began to expand outward using metal weapons, the fate of every new non-extractive society it bumped into was either to adopt the same practices or cease to exist.

This all began to happen in about 4000 BCE. See James DeMeo's "Saharasia" hypothesis, which I find deeply explanatory when it comes to the origins of the growth imperative, patriarchy (patrism), hierarchies and the violence associated with it all. It all seems to go back to climate change in a wide swath of land from the Sahara into the Caucasus.

Modern society seems to be the product of climate change. Ironic, no?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.9_kiloyear_event
http://www.orgonelab.org/saharasia.htm