It's true. It's been happening for a long time too, agriculture has been helping turn the most fertile land in the world into deserts for thousands of years though certainly it's happening a hell of a lot faster now. You'd think the Grapes of Wrath would have brought enough attention to that problem...
Boom! Found another resource to exploit...
Bust! Time to find another one...
The really saavy folks have known forever that the one resource that will keep on being exploitable is the ignorant masses. Grind'm into dust and they just replicate harder.