Hoffman and Derr are both authors who have strong feelings about environmental ethics. They both make pretty strong arguments; however, they disagree on some points. In this essay I will further explain on what basis these authors disagree.…
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.…
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…
"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."…
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.…
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).…
Society has engrained certain norms and ethics as to what is considered reasonable behavior regarding how we interact with one another, but has neglected to include the land on which we stand. The success of Earth’s ecosystem relies heavily on the cooperation of its inhabitants as well as the cooperation of the land. Discussed throughout Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There, in which he explains the necessity of maintaining our terrain through a land ethic.…
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…
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.…
In the 1940s ecologist Aldo Leopold penned his now famous essay “Thinking like a Mountain.” In his youth Leopold killed a wolf, but with reflection and wisdom that comes with age, he realized that wolves played a critical role in the interaction between prey species like deer and elk and plant communities. After seeing how too many deer and elk can strip a mountain of its vegetation, Leopold lamented that we needed to learn to think like a mountain — in other words, have a long-term view of the ecological role and value of predators.…
In my interpretation, it is very important to have a good land ethic because humans can make a huge impact when it comes to changing the land. In a personal experience of mine, as a young kid my dad always used to take me fishing in a channel full of fish and wildlife. Now days, my channel has been diminished of all the plants and trees which led to vanishing wildlife and quite possibly affected the fishing as well. I just can’t catch nearly the amount I used to. It is important for us humans to respect the land because if we destroy it, we also destroy the habitat for all the organisms living there.…
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)…
Our world is growing and is causing a list of problems that include deforestation, shortage of resources and the lost of many nature species. People have the necessity to have a home, but they ask for lavish homes, which affect our environment for the sake of cutting trees. Henry David Thoreau living in a small cabin in the woods, and gave us the example that building simple houses helps avoid deforestation. By creating lavish homes people are increasing deforestation by making more land available for housing, when construction companies start to construct they cut all the trees that are invading the place where the house is going to stand. By creating homes near green land, settlers begin producing their own food and starts by cleaning the land to be able to start with agriculture.…
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.…
Philosophy: I want the people who live in Awesome land to respect all people. In America we are a democracy county and I like that so therefore “Awesome land” will be democracy.…