Connor Kilgore
Conservation Biology 1120
Summer 2014
A Glimpse from the 1940's Land Ethic
How much of an impact do we make to our biological community? This is one of many
questions posed in the article assigned to us to read called The Land Ethic. Aldo Leopold poses
many ideas in his article, one of them being the importance of a biological community. This is
something that we tend to forget in our day and age. We are aware of our communities in
where we live and interact, but we forget that we are part of a biological community that
involves the plants, animals and bugs all around us.
Aldo goes on to explain that when we think in terms of helping our environment and
biological community we think in terms that are most economically beneficial. We tend to look
at conserving the members of our biological community that have the most value to us. Aldo
makes the argument that just because that the plant or animal may not be beneficial to us does
not make it any less valuable in our biological community.
For me, I am not quite sure how much I agree with this idea. I agree that even though
an animal doesn’t have any economical value that does not mean that it has no value in the
biological community. However, if an animal has no value or contributes to society I don’t'
believe we should go out of our way to conserve it.
Another major point that Aldo made in this article is that too often when we talk about
conservation biology that is all it is, talk, and to rarely does the talk not lead to education. Now
this article was written in the 1940's and from reading it you could imagine the same article
being written just a few days ago. Aldo goes on to explain that the conservation movement is
all about education and rarely leads to impactful change.
In my life conservation biology has not plain too important of a role. Conservation
Biology has always be taught and presented in a way that always has sounded very liberal.
When someone would talk about conservation biology and trying to become a better member
of our biological community the word hippie comes to mind. Now over the years my idea of
trying to become a better member of the biological community has become more important to
me. I have tried to do my best to conserve and do my part to help better our biological
community. Still I am not to the point where Aldo talks about in his article where I necessarily
go out of my way to make a real change to the biological community.
In Aldo's paper article he states, “A land ethic changes the role of humans from
conqueror of the land community to plain members and citizens of it. It implies respect for his
fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such." This means to me that we
forget that we are members of a biological community, that even though we may be at the top
of the food chain, we still rely on other members of our biological community. This statement
encourages us to think of other species just as much as we do our own. Putting this in to
practice however is a little harder to do. I have tried to understand and implement changes to
look at all species not just ones I find importance as having value. From this statement we
would apply it by being more conscious of how our actions affect our biological community and
actually change it.
Another quote that I found interesting in Aldo's article was when he stated "The landrelation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but not obligations". This article was
written in the 1940s and as far as I have observed our society's outlook on conservation biology
has not really changed. I still think that this is we think of the environment in terms of what it
can offer us, instead of us as members of a biological community. The focus I feel that our
society has on conservation biology is all education and not enough action. I think that
however until we are faced with a drastic problem where we need to change as a society
education will still be prominent and change will be second tier and will not be very major.
As we become more aware members of our biological community we need to look at all
other members of our community. That means that we would have to acknowledge all forms
of life human or not as significant members of our community. This means that we as a society
would need to see other species as having value. This problem is that unless we as humans see
an immediate benefit of us we will rarely sacrifice. As I have mentioned above I feel as a
society we will do minimal changes until we are forced to do so to have our society survive.
An interesting passage from this article was "A thing is right when it tends to preserve
the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends
otherwise." For me this statement is very utilitarian. To me it means that the needs of the
biological community outweigh the needs of the individual in the community. If we try to imply
this in our life we would start to make more changes in our lifestyle that would help our
biological community, such as recycling, composting, changing our commutes, landscape, and
being more aware the members of our biological community.
From this article you can tell that Aldo Leopold has a deep concern for the land. Which
makes one ponder what is ones motivation to help save the environment? Is it the love for the
land, the aesthetics, or is it the duty that one must satisfy, the ethics? For me, I do my best to
conserve and preserve the environment out of a sense of duty. I believe that we should try to
take care of our biological community and leave it in a better state than we found it. That it is
our responsibility to leave something better than where we found it, which includes our
biological community.
My personal land ethic if I had to deconstruct it more than the above I would say that
my desire to contribute positively to my biologically comes from a place of self interest. I when
I do something to help my environment I do it because after I feel good. I know that my
reasoning is selfish, but I know that I do these things so that I can feel good about myself and
know that I am making a change for the better in my biological community. I have a desire to
make the biological community better, but the reasons why I try to be better and become a
better member of the biological community is because I get something out of it.
Reading this article has helped me define my role in the biological community more. It
has helped me keep in mind the biological community as a whole. The article made some very
good points about our biological community. The key points that I took away from the article
are that we need to be more aware of us as members of a biological community. Also, our view
on the biological community is still first education then action and needs to change to action
first. I was very surprised to know that this article was written so long ago. This made me think
of how our society's view point on this issue hasn't changed.
This article has a very distinct feel like no change has been made in the conservation
biology effort. Maybe I feel that way because I can't get past that it was written in the 1940s
and I feel like at least some significant strides have been made in the conservation ethic. Now I
still think that we do not do enough, but the overall tone of that nothing is being done.
Overall I think this article was helpful in helping me understand our land ethic. At times
it was a little overkill, but I appreciated the points that the author was trying to make. After
reading this article I am aware of the Land Ethic in our biological community.