Aldo+Leopold

Aldo Leopold believes that ethics should be extended to the rather abstract concept of "land" as he lays out in the chapter **The Land Ethic**. Leopold feels that society should not continue to view the "land" as merely a source of commodity production, but that they should develop an //environmental conscious//. (Thompson)

//"In human history,we have learned (I hope) that the conqueror role is// //eventually self-defeating. Why? Because it is implicit in such a role that the conqueror knows, ex cathedra, just what makes the community clock tick, an just what and who is valuable, and what and who is worthless, in community life. It a;ways turns out thath e knows neither, and this is why his conquests eventually defeat themselves."//
 * Quotation(s) articulating key arguments:**

//“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and// //beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”//

//"The usual answer to [the dilemma of slow moving conservation ideas]// //is 'more conservation education.' No one will debate this, but is it certain that only the volume of education needs stepping up? Is something lacking in the content as well?//

__The land pyramid:__ "The Land" is actually a cyclical system, which Leopold somewhat misleadingly called a Pyramid; while there are fewer organisms in the upper levels, this does not necessarily mean that they are of less importance, but rather that they are dependent upon all of the lower levels. The soil (including nutrients and stones and small organisms, and possibly atmosphere would be put here, in retrospect) is what everything is dependent on, followed by plants, herbivores, carnivores, humanity and then our domestic animals. Life and creation brings energy up the pyramid, while death and decay brings it back down. (Hildebrand)

__Economics is not a land ethic:__ There are many things in nature that have little or no economic value, but are valuable to the ecosystem's stability. This makes economics unfit to gauge the value of the environment. It would be "hopelessly lopsided", and the complexity of natural ecosystems is far to great for any governing body to regulate in great detail. (Hildebrand)

Aldo Leopold gave a fundamental description of environmental ethics near the start of his essay "The Land Ethic". Leopold stated, "An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on the freedom of action in the struggle for existence" (38). Furthermore, he claimed that environmental ethics has been represented in the past by populations of people or groups of organisms creating ways to deal peacefully with each other (38). Although this behavior is good, it excludes any mention of the relation humans have had towards the biotic and abiotic entities of the world. Biotic and abiotic entities must be included in the "limitation on freedom of action" in which the action is from the human species. Leopold suggested that some people who lived in the time before Jesus Christ's birth thought that ruining the vitality of land is neither advantageous nor moral (38). Yet, modern society has not acknowledged those ancient peoples' correct belief.

Another concept Leopold wants readers of his essay to understand is that humans have manipulated and changed the environments that they have lived in without considering the right of all organisms to future existence and the right of abiotic entities to non-anthropogenic existence (39). He states, "... just what and whom do we love? ... Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species" (Leopold 39). Although he disapproves of these actions, he realistically admits that an environmental ethic would not be capable of preventing further removal of organisms or destruction of abiotic entities (39).

Under the third subheading of his essay, Leopold gives a reason why the application of conservation in our society is not effective. He argues that what is being taught as conservatism is not conservatism. He lists the activities conservation teachers advocate that their students should do. The activities are such things as "join some organizations, and practice what is profitable on your own land..." (Leopold 40). He insists that these recommended activities do not involve determining what is right and what is wrong, duties to anyone or anything, sacrifice for anyone or anything, nor change in the present values of society (40).

__Aldo Leopold, page 2__