In light of the massive environmental destruction that is now affecting the entire planet and challenging human existence, a question urgently arises: Is the human being a Homo destructor who destroys its environment always and everywhere? Or do we have a destructive side that only becomes visible under certain circumstances? Do humans only turn into Homo destructor at a certain point in time? The well-known geographer and doyen of Alpine research Werner Bätzing gets to the bottom of these questions in a comprehensive history of man and the environment. Cultural self-limitation in earlier times is called into question by the industrial revolution, modern science, enlightenment and the market economy. This is the beginning of a way of thinking and acting that exploits nature and the environment on a short-term basis and destroys the limited earth. Bätzing pleads in his Opus magnum “Homo destructor” (Beck, 2023) for a new cultural self-limitation.