A few comments
We graduated to fossil fuels. So now it's time to graduate to nuclear and beyond, something that was well on its way a generation ago before it was stopped in its tracks. At least in this country.
Remember that only societies which are comfortable and have a lot of surplus wealth can afford the luxury of environmentalism.
The "stable" societies you use as examples were also often incredibly stagnant, advancing very little over hundreds to thousands of years. This is kind of a high price to pay for "living with the Earth," in my opinion.