People vs Environment

In the modern world industrialization is responsible for bringing mass numbers of people up out of poverty and giving them the luxuries of medicine, food security, energy, clean water, and the beneifts that follow suit.  But, industrialization, especially quick industrialization, wreaks havoc on the natural environment.  In some countries such as Brazil, those in poverty who would seek to use the rainforest to better their situation are criminalized for action such as mining or farming.  Not to say that these practices cannot be bettered, and certainly the corporations that exploit both people and environment are better off regulated, but the idea in general raises some questions.  Is this all just a product of the capitalistic market economy? Should policy protect the environment even at the expense of the misfortunate? Or is the entire premise false, is it the nature of the system in which the poor must destroy to become better that should be changed? 

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