Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic

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An ecological ethic as defined by Aldo Leopold is “a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle for existence.” Leopold’s Land Ethic is an ethical viewpoint that acknowledges the vast and complex interconnection of all living and non-living things in biota that make up our planet and points to a way of living that, according to Leopold, “tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.” Part of the understanding involved in the Land Ethic is that biota are a complex linkage of diverse and interdependent chains which form a pyramid with soil and microbes forming the base and apex predators forming the top. Humans fall somewhere in the middle with other omnivores. Due to humanity’s ability to make tools we have been able to enact violent changes to the biota that are drastically different in both the haste and breadth compared to the slow and confined evolutionary changes that naturally occur. This has essentially reversed the natural evolution of the biota, increasing in complexity and diversity, and truncated the pyramid removing apex predators and causing of the energy in the biotic circuit. Due to the interconnected nature of the biotic pyramid, this depletion of energy has wide reaching effects. Leopold’s Land Ethic would …show more content…

I think there is even more evidence for his observation now. Many examples of unethical land use are seen in the film “A Fierce Green Fire,” which was inspired by Leopold’s writings. From the clear cutting of the rain forests of South America for extremely unsustainable cattle ranching to the building of oil and gas pipelines across major sources of fresh water we can still see that humanity has a long way to go to reach a land

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