I vehemently disagree with this paragraph: you don't need to believe in "intelligent design" in order to see everything I've pointed out above. In fact, you would not even need to be a theist. After all, I am not a theist in any traditional sense of the term, plus I consider "Intelligent Design" to be an unfortunate pseudo-science. If people need to anthropomorphize (the forces of) nature or the cosmic principles that govern it all, that's perfectly okay by me - as long as they do not try to sell these beliefs as science: it's not, it never can be, and it won't help at all.
I've seen similar arguments on all sides of this debate, and on vastly different topics. My 98-year-old great-aunt asserted that what's wrong with this planet was that people did not believe in reincarnation like she did: "if they knew they were coming back, and would bear the burden of everything they've done in their previous incarnations, they'd act differently". Likewise, I've seen atheists argue that religion was responsible for our willingness to perpetuate ecologically disastrous practices: "It's those Christians who believe that this life is just a prelude to a heavenly afterlife, along with the belief that the world's going to end anytime soon, anyway. To them, the continued integrity of the biosphere is a moot point to begin with. God will sort things out."
At first glance, those atheists would even seem to have a point: after all, the USA are perhaps THE most overwhelmingly religious nations among the first-world countries of this world - yet simultaneously the worst offenders in terms of wasteful lifestyles, resource consumption and pollution.
But I don't think this is really about theism vs. non-theism. After all, the Eastern Bloc devastated the environment even more profoundly than the west during the cold war, and atheist China is now choking with pollution and environmental degradation.
No, this problem runs much deeper than that, and it's got something to do with how our species has lived for thousands of years: see, mankind's mentality during the agrarian age was one of constant struggle AGAINST nature, right down to the most existential level. You needed to produce as many children as humanly possible, not only because it would improve your lot by providing you with a huge network of relations, but because not even half of them would survive to adulthood, statistically speaking. Clearing out forests, draining swamps, exterminating large predators, or otherwise driving back nature was considered a GOOD thing, and having so many resources that you could waste them on a sumptuous lifestyle was a lofty goal to aspire to, signifying status and wealth.
That mentality is still with us, deeply ingrained in virtually every culture. You can see it at work in China right now: due to industrialization (and factory farming), people can suddenly afford to eat meat seven days a week, three times a day - and to do so is a sign of prosperity, a status symbol. China is virtually EXPLODING with all sorts of diseases resulting from such dietary habits (not to mention with the side-effects of factory farming; contaminated ground water, hormones, antibiotics-resistant germs, etc.).
A tiny minority within those countries that have been exposed to (post-)industrial abundance are gradually coming to their senses: population growth is decreasing, some people reduce their meat intake to healthier levels or skip it altogether, people share cars, use public transport or ride a bike/take a walk, etc.; but judging by what's happening out there, it's WAY too little, and WAY too slow.
We've become so used to thinking of our species at something that's not only apart from, but in active opposition to "Nature", that we can barely adjust to the idea that we're basically in the middle of an elaborate, drawn out accidental suicide.