We are obliged to rest on Shabbat and festivals and even to let the land lie fallow every seventh year. Clearly, the Torah's conception of humanity's relationship to the earth is that of tenant farmers permitted to profit from the land, provided it is turned over to the next generation in good working order. The explicit ecological ethic of the Torah is stewardship. Nor is the land given unconditionally. The priestly book of Leviticus posits a causal connection between human behavior and the capacity of the land to sustain its inhabitants.
Pollution derives primarily from immorality.
The land must be kept sacred and pure. Fertility became a consequence of the moral standards of human society. A recent U.S. edition of the Bible for popular use omitted the book of Leviticus because the editors deemed it to be archaic, primitive, and irrelevant. Nothing could be more obtuse. Urban civilization has blunted our reverence for land and our appreciation of its fragileness.