We won’t have a society if we destroy the environment.

The line compresses an ecological argument into a social one: human institutions—economies, laws, culture, and community life—depend on stable environmental conditions. Mead frames environmental degradation not as a niche concern but as a direct threat to the possibility of “society” itself, implying that social cohesion and long-term human flourishing are inseparable from the health of the natural systems that sustain life. The blunt conditional (“won’t have”) functions as a warning and a prioritization: environmental protection is not optional or secondary to social progress, but a prerequisite for it.