Multiple books have been published, showing the importance of natural ecosystems to a nation state.
Guns, Germs, and Steel is a perfect example. Most countries that devastate their natural habitat doom themselves.
If the Brazilians want to suffer from runoff, acid leaching, deforestation, loss of natural wildlife, and erosion, then more power to them. Their whole country can turn into one giant favela for all I care. Well, more of one, I guess.
That is not what the book states. The book shows that any civilization that cultivates wheat or rice, can feed their population with less farmers and free the others to do other pursuits like crafts and metallurgy. Furthermore nations that have animal husbandry also catch various poxes from the animals like chicken pox, cow pox, small pox and etc and their population become immune to such diseases. Thus when the Europeons contact the Indians in the new world that live the environmentalist utopia (clean air, clean water) they died from the poxes.