Jason Martinez

Conservation Biology 1120

The Land Ethic: Our Philosophy Towards Mother Earth

Have you ever stopped to think about where the food you eat comes
from? Or how devastating that plastic bag you use to throw groceries in at
the store can be to the environment? Not many people really take into
consideration what they do to harm the environment not to mention how to
conserve and protect it. I feel this is what Aldo Leopold was getting at in is
essay entitled The Land Ethic. In a shorter and more to the point sense, he
feels that the human interaction with the land (soil, water, animals, and
plants) has gone from a more philosophical sense to an economic sense.
Humans have lost and continue to lose that sense of moral obligation to care
for the land around them. He talks about how we as a society should treat
the land around us as the animate part of the community that it is, rather
than treat it as a privilege we should make it an obligation to conserve it and
allow for growth and a more stable environment in which it was intended to
be.
He gives an example as to what might have happened if the land had
not grown properly when settlers traveled west and new states were founded
and land was purchased and owned. What if the lands that they had owned
not have produced the necessary materials and produce to sustain our way
of living? Where would we be had their crops and animals not have been able
to keep up with the growth and dependency of the human population?

Leopold feels that we have consumed up the land, and taken it for granted
so much that its necessary and morally correct for us to give back and
preserve the land around us today. He wants you to look at the land as your
best friend. If your best friend does something for you, the general tendency
is to do something nice back as a thank you for being there. Well why cant
we do that with the land? Its been there before humans walked the earth; it
has provided many luxuries and commodities for us that we have lost our
sense of pride and gratitude towards the land. I feel that Aldo Leopold would
want us to continue to pursue a more green way of living. It is necessary
for civilization to grow but with that we need to take more pride and be
morally obligated to care for and conserve the land around us.
I believe that our surroundings, in this case the land, and what it
provides for us is an obligation that we should not take for granted. I
personally feel that the land was intended for our use and the use of the
ecosystems they are a part of. We should do what we can to preserve and
protect the environment and prevent any malicious use of the land. I feel
that we should strive to better understand what we can do to help
accomplish this with limiting our use of non-recyclable goods and control our
destruction of land for business and industry.
My parents who are from a very small town in Mexico always stressed
how important it is to preserve and regulate consumption of natural
resources. Water and decent soil to grow crops on was scarce so they really

needed to make sure to preserve the little they have to ensure the longevity
of the valuable areas around them. When they came over to the states they
continued this by taking advantage of recycle programs and instilled certain
values in me as far as how I can play my part in being morally understanding
and correct about how I should treat the goods the land has given us.
We as a species feel that we are top dog, that we have the power to
control and consume the goods that come from the land. Well in a way that
is true we have cultivated farming systems, food industries and an
international consumer trade system that allows us to use and consume the
natural resources that the land has provided. Unfortunately I feel that there
is more consumption of these resources than actual preservation. Many
species of animals and plants have gone extinct or are endangered of being
extinct because of our uncontrollable dependency and their vulnerability to
our actions. We dont realize it but our ability to consume and expand our
cities and industries into various types of land outweighs the ability of that
land to compensate or reproduce to keep up with our rate of expansion. The
best way to combat this is respect the land as if it were your neighbor
because It technically is. You wouldnt wander into your neighbors yard so
you can use their BBQ grill right? You would ask, and in this case you want to
do the same with the land before using a consumable you want to educate
yourself on the best way to go about it without doing more harm than good
to the environment.

Leopold in his essay commented that the land is strictly economic,

entailing privileges but not obligations. At the time it was very true that
people were demonstrating a lack of care about the land around them. At the
time the economy was going through somewhat of a boom with WWII around
the corner many industries needed the land to allow for production of war
materials thus needing more and more natural resources to produce the
necessary equipment and vehicles to supply the war. This in turn created
more and more fossil fuel emissions and destroyed many ecosystems in the
process. We have come a long way since then and to me I feel we are doing
much better in doing our part in preserving our land. We now have
educational courses such as this one to provide information on not only the
consequences of our actions but also provide forms of alternative use of the
land. The government has stepped in and maintained a national park system
that helps preserve threatened wildlife within certain areas of the country.
The preservation of the land by the government has definitely lifted a heavy
burden on private land owners that maybe didnt have the resources or time
to properly protect and maintain an abundance of resources on their land.
All of our efforts to conserve and preserve the land around us are
exactly what Leopold was trying to convince people with the land ethic. We
as a population and community need to act as if the land was a part of the
living community. We humans need to treat the land as if it were another
human so to speak. The fact that we depend on the land and it depends on

us should be all the reason necessary to preserve and protect our

environment.
As a part of the land we need to be concerned with every individual
part of the population. When we look at conservation the first thing we think
of or at least I think of are plants and animals. But what exactly about plants
and animals are so important? We tend to overlook the individual impact that
each species of plant, animal, soil type and water quality has not only on the
environment but on us as well. I agree with Leopolds statement that a thing
is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the
biotic community. The fact of the matter is if something we do doesnt
benefit the community around us then theres no reason to go about it.
I feel the more efforts we put into the surrounding environment, the
more and more we will appreciate and come to love the world we live in. I
think its a natural human instinct that when things are handed to you your
whole life that eventually you take it all for granted and dont realize the
significance of it. The beauty of nature will not develop without the help of
those who are destroying it. As we continue to grow cities and expand our
technologies the bigger impact well have on the environment. Its really up
to us to make sure that we can maintain a stable and fertile system. I feel
that our ethics benefit the land more than aesthetics. The more and more we
apply ourselves to the land, the aesthetics and stability will soon show itself.

The land ethic by Aldo Leopold opened up a certain light into how I
should look at the world. In a way Ive begin to come to a greater
understanding of how and why we should worry about our surroundings and
what we can do to change the way we go about our lives. Before reading his
essay I never really took much thought into how important or how I could
possibly make a difference in regards to the land. Im sure anyone that has
read this would agree that Aldo Leopold at the time was on the right track in
how he saw the land and how we as a society should come to appreciate all
that it has given us.
My personal beliefs and practices regarding the environment all have
purpose into helping it. After reading Aldos essay I have a much deeper and
more thorough understanding than I did before. Along with that it has further
gained more interest in taking this conservation biology course as well in
hopes of discovering new ways that I can do my part and whatever is
necessary to keep our land in the shape it was intended to be.