This is one of the core parts of world building of Miyazaki's 1980s Nausicaa manga. A world mostly covered by a vast fungus that is accumulating all the 'bad' things scattered about by the last civilization and eventually making inert sands. https://ekostoriesdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/nausica...
Which humans did not understand and wish to destroy as they only saw the forest (which they named the Sea of Corruption) as toxic and threatening the existence of their civilization (both also true).
It's very pointed criticism of our own self-serving approach to environmentalism.
It's very pointed criticism of our own self-serving approach to environmentalism.