The Land Ethic

Leopold challenges us to rethink our ethical decisions, values, and role in the biotic community. He opens up by telling us the story on how Odysseus when returning from war in Troy, had hung his slave girls because he suspected them of misbehavior during his absence. This idea of disposal of property is exactly how we look at the land, and the ecological community around us. Leopold discusses how there are many ethics that explain the individual’s relations to things. Such as the Golden Rule which ties the individual to society and democracy, which integrates social organization to the individual. However, he shines the spotlight on how there ha snot been an ethic that is centralize don man’s relation to the land, animals, or plants. This is because as humans we view the land as an economic resource and a sour property. Which entails privileges, but leaving no obligations. Society however has not realized or taken into account that the despoliation of land is wrong. He talks about the concept of a community, where us humans are members of the ecological community that contains interdependent parts. Leopold proposes to us the land ethic, which is simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include the land as a collective. He brings us an important point that the land ethics doesn’t have the power to prevent the alteration, management, and use of the resources that the land has provided for us, but as humans we must make it our duty to uphold their right to continued existence. Leopold discusses how conservation is a state of harmony between men and land, and although there have been efforts to uphold this; it still proceeds at a snail’s pace. Us individuals often forget that the land is not just soil; it is a fountain of energy. This energy flows through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals.
I strongly agree with Leopold’s notion that we don’t have a written land ethic that we are pushed to follow. I think in today’s capitalist world, we simply see the land as an economic resource and property. We fight on the land, pollute its waters, damage rainforest habitats, and hunt animals for game. Now were at a point in history where conservation, and the presence of a land ethic to live by and follow are vital. It’s vital not only for us, but for the future generations that are to follow us. If we taught land ethics with the same energy and enthusiasm as finance or sports, our planet would probably be in a better place right now. It is the lack of sentimental and emotional value that we have as humans on this planet, which has led us to this point. We’ve made the individual come first in our world, while putting the plant’s stability on the back burner.

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