The Land Ethic
"An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle for existence."
"An ethic, philosophically, is a differentiation of social from anti-social conduct.
Ethics originally dealt with the relations between individuals. They moved further into the relations between individuals and society. Leopold is suggesting that the next step is the relationship between the individual and their environment. In his introduction to "The Land Ethic," an excerpt taken from A Sand County Almanac, Leopold states, "There is as yet no ethic dealing with man's relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it." (Leopold, page 56) Seeing as this piece is from the year 1966, it is a bit dated and things have changed quite a bit. I don't agree with this statement that he makes. Today, we have fines for overfishing and cutting down trees, among many other things. There are ethics set in place for our relationship with the environment. I do understand where Leopold was coming from however.
The Community Concepts
My favorite quote from this particular section is, "The ordinary citizen today assumes that science knows what makes the community clock tick; the scientist is equally sure that he does not. He knows that the biotic mechanism is so complex that its workings may never be fully understood." (Leopold, page 61) This quote resonated with me because I feel that, as a human race, we often get over confident in the tolls we take on our environment. We hear stories of how good a certain thing will be for our environment only to come to realize years later that it was detrimental in more ways than one. An example of this would be the planting of the Melaleuca trees in the Everglades. They were brought here to soak up water in order to build upon the land, but began spreading like wildfire and are now considered an invasive species.
The Ecological Conscience
In the beginning of this section, Leopold defines conservation as a state of harmony between men and land. He continues by saying, "Despite nearly a century of propaganda, conservation still proceeds at a snail's pace; progress still consists largely of letterhead pieties and convention oratory." (Leopold, page 62) Keeping in mind that this excerpt is quite dated, I disagree with this quote. Although, as humans, we do tend to talk the talk and not always walk the walk. I believe that conservation has increased immensely and that far more people are acting for the environment that they inhabit and for the entire world's health overall.
Substitutes for a Land Ethic
"...a system of conservation based solely on economic self-interest is hopelessly lopsided. It tends to ignore, and thus eventually to eliminate, many elements in the land community that lack commercial value, but that are (as far as we know) essential to its healthy functioning." (Leopold, page 67)
I agree with this quote wholeheartedly. Human beings, as a whole, are a greedy species. We tweak certain aspects of our environment in order to make a few dollars, but end up inflicting irreconcilable damage. We capitalize on what is beneficial to us and ignore everything that is not. Instead of trampling over our environment as if we are superior, we should research and try to understand the pros and cons of our actions prior to putting a green light on a potentially damaging situation.
The Land Pyramid
On page 68 of the Colloquium Reader, Leopold begins to explain the complex simplicity of the land pyramid. To summarize, he says that the pyramid consists of layers.
- The bottom layer is soil
- A plant layer
- An insect layer
- A bird and rodent layer
- And so on through many more layers of predators upon lower levels of prey
"In the beginning, the pyramid of life was low and squat; the food chains short and simple. Evolution has added layer after layer, link after link. Man is one of thousands of accretions to the height and complexity of the pyramid. Science has given us many doubts, but it has given us at least one certainty: the trend of evolution is to elaborate and diversify the biota." (Leopold, page 69)
Land Health and the A-B Cleavage
Leopold notes that we see the same basic paradoxes in each cleavage:
- Man the conqueror versus man the biotic citizen
- Science the sharpener of his sword versus science the searchlight on his universe
- Land the slave and servant versus land the collective organism
"The evolution of a land ethic is an intellectual as well as emotional process. Conservation is paved with good intentions which prove to be futile, or even dangerous, because they are devoid of critical understanding either of the land, or of economic land-use. I think it is a truism that as the ethical frontier advances from the individual to the community, its intellectual content increases." (Leopold, page 77)
As I proposed earlier when speaking on "Substitutes for a Land Ethic," I think learning about ways in which we can capitalize on our resources effectively is extremely important. We cannot continue to act like we are a priority and that the environment comes second to our species. To think of a world devoid of plants and animals is impossible because we simply cannot live without them. I agree that conservation and environment education are imperative to moving forward and living symbiotically with nature. We must create an ethic where we can live respectfully of the plants and animals around us, but it is easier said than done.
