Is It Worth It?

I just finished watching "Manufactured Landscapes " (4 out of 5) It's a documentary, or crapumentary as my cousin says, about the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky. His photographs focus on the landscapes created by our civilisation, the three gorges dam, a strip mining operation, ship breaking region in India. It was a visually impacting film because it shows how we are changing the world. Aside... for some reason the phrase feels empty, we are always changing the world, what it should be described at is, the global impact of humans. After i finished watching the movie, my cousin challenged me on what i got out of it, which was, is it worth trying to stop the change?
I want to use change because using destruction will skew the argument. I got thinking while watching the movie, is this not what were supposed to be doing? Why is it bad the "urbanization of China" which is their goal? To have china be 70% urban, 30% agrarian. Is sucking up all the oil really a bad thing in the end? During the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, a lot of historical sites were destroyed, and neighborhoods that have existed for almost 100 years in shanghai are being destroyed and replaced by high-rises. Why not? What is wrong with continuing on our course? I read yesterday that Brazil has almost destroyed it's Atlantic rain forest. Yes, all that Bio-diversity is gone, but so what? I'm not being facetious here, it's just... the Dodo disappeared, are we worse off?
I'm honestly at a crossroad thinking about this now. I think the environmental movement has being going strong for two decades? more? I really don't think they have accomplished much.
I hope I'm just being pessimistic.