Did Agriculture Wreck the Middle East and North Africa?

There is archaeological and geological evidence that the Middle East and North Africa were once green. There are two basic theories for why it's now a giant sand pit--one is that the climate changes periodically. The change might be driven by solar cycles or Earth's orbital mechanics. It could also be driven by other large scale phenomena, like geological changes that influence weather patterns. The other main theory is that agriculture wrecked it. Irrigation, tilling soil, and overgrazing might have been enough to destroy the landscape.

Once the groundcover was lost, the land became arid and dry. Without trees or grasses, there's nothing to catch and hold water and the cycle of rain and evaporation breaks.

Did all the carbon topsoil cover just blow away or turn to dust? It seems like that process would take longer than a few thousand years... but I don't really know.

Anyway, the answer to this question seems really fundamental. Is "Western" civilization really just completely untenable? Is the basis for western civilization fatally flawed? The West is a combination of things, but at its base are some ideas about agriculture and nature that might just be fatally incorrect.

Babylon just gets built again and again until it collapses into a shitshow of greed, death, and destruction.