I always trace this ideas back to the sense of self, the ego, the concept of a Me. The self places itself at the center of its world and is therefore all-important and special — more special than anyone or anything else. One of the main problems with the self is that it creates the dichotomy, the duality between Me and the other and in doing so it removes itself from nature and the natural cycles of which you speak. You have stated the symptom very well, but it seems to me that the cause is this egoic self that has been formed from psychological conditioning since early childhood and perhaps even the womb. It is also this egoic self that divorces itself as the cause for the damage and suffering it does.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you wrote that "we’re part of a natural process that’s no more important than any other natural phenomenon..." When you state that people build societies that gobble up the wilderness it is only because people have removed themselves from the equation that includes them as part of the natural process.

We are supernatural and special because we say so and believe that we are, especially because we have created religion, god, and other ideas that reinforce our selfish beliefs and agendas. And being different, superior and special is a pretty faulty idea that has caused untold suffering through the ages.