Leopold Reflection

 

http://www.tzuchi.org.ph/newsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=787:environmental-protection&catid=environmental-protection&Itemid=492

The reading form Aldo Leopold, The Land Ethic, explained the very issues that the world is currently experiencing on a more extreme level. Such as, animal species going extinct, more land is being cleared without completion, and land is also being overused agriculturally. I understand that accommodations are required for a growing population, but we need to start thinking outside the box and looking at the whole picture.

Leopold mentions, “There is as yet no ethic dealing with man’s relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it” (59). Because, individuals are not ethically involved with the environment, there is no appreciation for it. This is an undoubted flaw of a human being. It is as if there is no benefit to taking action, why take any at all? Another quote mentioned in the reading states, “The land-relation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but not obligations” (59). We live everyday wanting to know what is going to make us the next dollar. This is how we view the world around us, and this can include land. When the big boom was on the rise, many people bought land to develop strip malls, or housing, but once everything began to fall, these projects were in a standstill. Majority of these places are not complete to this day and may never be. All of this was only to provide an economic growth for the community (meaning people), not the community as a whole, including animals and trees. Leopold writes that a land ethic can allow one to view roles differently. It changes the role of “Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it” (60). This reminds me of Indians. There was much respect for the land and other species that shared the land with them. They grew what was needed, and hunted what was needed, never taking too much. If we had a land ethic, I believe that many individuals would have more respect of what is around them.

Leopold was onto something when he wrote this in his book. We need to start having a relationship with the land we have. . We need to have “Love, respect and admiration, and high regard for its value” (76). We need do our best to conserve it and hope that in doing so, we can save our land.