Preview

Aldo Leopold "Land Ethic" Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
794 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Aldo Leopold "Land Ethic" Essay Example
Aldo Leopold’s philosophies on land ethic seem to go hand in hand with natural resource management. Natural resource management simply means the way in which our resources are obtained, and then dispersed in a highly efficient manner. Leopold’s land ethic refers to how the environment should be appreciated and respected in regards to its use.

Leopold emphasizes strongly the importance of land ethic because he believes the desire for it is just not there. For the average person land exists to satisfy their own needs. Whether it’s used for development, recreation, or simply ownership, it’s the same consensus; People do not serve the land, the land serves the people. It is due to this mentality that sets forth Aldo Leopold’s teachings and philosophies. He feels that if nothing is done the quality of land will eventually become degraded beyond repair. There is a great lack of knowledge about Ecology in public educational institutions. (Knight, A New Century 125)

“There is as yet no ethic dealing with man’s relationship to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it.” (Leopold, Almanac, With Essays 238) Since in the earliest times human beings have taken on the dominant role of utilizing natural resources. There has always been the attitude of ownership, rather than actually being a part of the land.

In regards to natural resource management, Leopold, gives a new perspective with his land ethic. There has been an on going struggle between the traditional utilitarianism and the non-utilitarianism beliefs. What Aldo Leopold does is combine certain aspects of both sides to find common ground amongst the bicentric and the anthropocentric views. (Knight, A New Century 113)

Leopold’s views are more along the lines of the multiple-use policies that are currently implemented in today’s natural resource management agencies. Leopold strives to see a perfectly balanced system that can uphold the values of conservation, while simultaneously meeting societal

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Never has a man left the embrace of nature once he found himself enamored by it; this infatuation is found in both John Muir’s and Aldo Leopold’s writing, a sense of wanting to protect this deity they call Mother Nature, a moral and ethical responsibility which every human being has to this Mother. Both John Muir and Aldo Leopold recount their almost romantic encounter with Mother Nature in their books Our National Parks and A Sand County Almanac, respectively. However, in both books it is notable that each man carries instilled in the very fiber of their being a sense of dissatisfaction toward the process of mechanization and industrialization; processes which unfortunately…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics. That land yields a cultural harvest is a fact long known, but lately forgotten."…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The land ethic In Leopold’s view, humans see themselves as conquerors of the environment, and this is the key fault we all begin with in achieving this symbiosis with nature. This can be referred to as the conqueror role- we think we know what makes a community “tick.” We think we can manage it, and be “kings” of the land. But we don’t know as much as we think we do. He persists there is an instrumental value to nature, and this is one of the reasons we have no choice but to preserve it, we cannot survive as a species without its resources.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sand County Almanac

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A ‘land ethic’ is a philosophy that guides and regulates the actions humans take when they attempt to change or use the land. I feel that people over use and over-work the land and resources that we have in the world. Sure, I like to have fancy things but when I think about the fact that everyone in the world likes to have these things they don’t need at all it makes me sick. We are killing our planet every day. I don’t like saying ‘we’ need to come up with a cheaper and cleaner form of energy because I feel hypocritical, but that is definitely something that has got to happen. It is imperative that we meet the needs of society today in such a way that we are still able to meet the needs of future generations.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Just using the natural resources and not doing thing to replace it; it is just plain outrages. This like buying food just once and not replacing them; you will starve. I strongly agreed with Mr. Muir ideas how to preserve the land. Mr. Muir studied botany and geology at the University of Wisconsin2.…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For their time, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold held to beliefs that would influence conservationist ideals for many years to come. These pioneers of the concept of "harmony between men and land" (Leopold, 1949, p. 217) constructed a new wave of thinking towards conservation. Their work provided the foundations of contemporary thinking, which is more concerned with globalization and education than moral obligation. Although conservation is still a well discussed issue, many steps have yet to be taken to align society with the goals necessary to preserve a lush natural world. Pinchot held that the natural world exists for the sole "benefit of the people who live [on the Earth]" (Pinchot, 1910, p.33).…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Define the movement for the “preservation” of natural resources. What did the authors of these sources propose to do?…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Muir and Abbey

    • 1014 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It is difficult to find writers more passionate about the natural environment than John Muir and Edward Abbey. Both Muir in a section from his book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf and Abbey in a chapter titled Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks channel anger and frustration at the environmental policies of their time into literature that argues fervently for preservation of national parks and other areas of wilderness. In Hetch Hetchy Valley, Muir reverently describes in vivid detail the beautiful landscape of a river valley in Yosemite called the Hetch Hetchy Valley, condemning anyone who supports a government plan to dam the Hetch Hetchy River and flood the valley. In a famous quote Muir says, “no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man” (Muir 112). Abbey employs a highly sarcastic and satirical tone to outline the consequences of further expansion of roads and highways into national parks. He aims to incite anger with sharp language and insults to draw the reader in emotionally. “This is a courageous view, admirable in its simplicity and power… It is also quite insane” (Abbey 422). Both pieces easily stand alone, but when looked at together they suggest even more strongly that it is deceptive and dishonest to advertise industrialization of wilderness as any kind of favorable progress for society. This “progress” does not actually benefit anyone. Those who proclaim this as their reason for supporting industrial development are more likely motivated by the short-term economic benefits they will receive.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hoffman and Derr

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Hoffman argues that nature has intrinsic value meaning it has value in and of itself. He is supportive of the bio centric ethic which includes all things which are alive or are integral parts of the ecosystem as deserving moral consideration. Hoffman is very critical of the homocentric view which believes that the environment is only as valuable as we make it. Meaning that things are based deemed valuable only if they are beneficial to human well being and development. Hoffman associates the homocentric view to “human chauvism” which would argue that human beings are the only subjects of moral consideration and have intrinsic value.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Defenders of nature became divided between fervent “preservationists” who wanted to stop all human intrusions and more moderate “conservationist.”…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Sand County Almanac

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Most of Leopold’s arguments were in my opinion good arguments. In the third part, Leopold brings to my attention the obvious ironies of conservation. To promote the appreciation of wildlife and gain political support, one encourages recreational usage of wilderness. That same recreational use destroys the very environment that you would be trying to conserve. Leopold talks about how people want to take a trophy from the wilderness to share or always remember their experience. He says that just being there is a trophy enough. I love to hunt and I love to widdle wood. In Leopold’s eyes I would be taking trophies. He goes into such detail describing small creatures; that I usually would shoot for fun, but he really opened my eyes to how just the slightest change can affect so much in an ecosystem that I think twice.…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aldo Leopold was a conservationist, forester philosopher, educator, writer and outdoor enthusiast and was among the founding fathers of the North American conservation movement during the first half of twentieth century (Leopold, 1981). He argues that humans are part of a community that includes the land, from the soil to the rivers and seas (Leopold, 1981). According to Leopold (1981), until humans recognize that they are part of the land and act accordingly, they will continue to negatively impact the environment and their own health by extension (Leopold, 1981)…

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chapter eight discusses the migration of the Chinese in the 1800’s. These migrants were looking for a peaceful place to live from than China. In China there were conflicts caused by British Opium Wars. While British Colonialism was pushing the Irish population west across the Atlantic, it was also pushing the Chinese east across the Pacific. Another reason for this migration was that they were getting away from the chaos of peasant rebellions. Along with all of this, there was an economic crisis. Most of those who migrated were men, temporarily working in America. They were illiterate and hardly went to school but they had high expectations for themselves.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After reading “The Land Ethic” by Aldo Leopold I found that his research and understanding of land ethics is very thorough and he makes valid points that should be read by everyone in our society. He gives a different outlook on land that makes sense and creates a vivid image of the way that we as human should view land. He describes land as not just soil that lies beneath our feet or below the plants that we walk on, cut, or eat, but as the first layer in a community of which each piece is dependent on one another. If one piece of the community were to fall or not do what it is intended, it would in turn make it difficult for the rest of the community the thrive as it should. When thinking of land it makes it easier if it is thought of as…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aldo Leopold, in his essay collection A Sand County Almanac explores the natural world, and the symbiotic relationship that’s shared between plant and animal, while also insinuating how humans live in opposition to that fragile synchrony, for we live to reshape our environment for contemporary gains. Leopold is able to write the essay as an ecological historian, who’s knowledge comes from the topography of the Wisconsin landscape, the rings of an Oak tree, or a single atom entombed in a limestone ledge. The first two sections of the book gravitate around two opposing forces conservation and modern progress (scientific advancement, economical growth.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays