The Land EthicAldo Leopold

Dr. Green

Ethical Community

• How are these borders determined?

• Narrow Borders– Odysseus could hang his slaves because they

were his property

• Wider Borders– Slavery is no longer considered ethical

• How Wide Should the Borders be Drawn?

What Is Ethics?

• Philosophically– a differentiation of social from anti-social

conduct

• Ecologically– limitations on freedom of action in the struggle

for existence

Evolutionary Change

• Free-for-all competition replaced with cooperation as individuals develop interdependencies– Biological symbioses

Stages of Evolution

• Relations of individuals– Code of Moses

• Relations within society– Individual to society in the Golden Rule– Society to individual in democracy

• Relations to nature– Still treated as property

Assumptions of Ethics

• that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts– Instincts tell one to compete for a place in the

community– Ethics tells one to cooperate

Land Ethic

• The land ethic enlarges the boundaries of the community to include – Soils– Waters– Plants– Animals

The Biological Pyramid

• Members– Predators– Birds and rodents– Insects– Plants– Soil

• Relationships—food chains– Stability from highly organized webs of connections– Energy flows

• Evolution– Slow

Status of Humans

• Two views– Conqueror of the land-community

• Land is commodity

• Self-interest is primary

– A member and citizen of it who must respect to total community

• Land is a biotic systems with economic and non-economic elements

Humans

• Division found in– Forestry– Wildlife management– Agriculture

Why Humans Must Change

• Conquering is self-defeating• The conqueror claims to know

– what makes the community work– what and who is valuable– what and who is worth-less

• It always turns out that he knows neither, and this is why his conquests eventually defeat themselves.– Systems are too complex to be known fully

Need for a Land Ethic

• Most members of the land community have no economic value

• Without economic value, they are not considered in our calculations– Fabricate economic value—songbirds– Eradication of

• predators—wolf• Noncommercial trees• Entire biotic communities—bogs, marshes etc.

• Those that are eliminated are needed for the healthy functioning of the ecosystem

Civilization and Environment

• Environment sets the possibilities or civilizations– Kentucky and bluegrass– Southwest

• With livestock progressive erosion

• With plants and irrigation, the Pueblo culture

• Plant succession constrains civilizations

Ecological Health

• Consists in the capacity for self-renewal

Human Intervention

• Changes are induced too rapidly

• Changes produce unpredicted and often untraceable readjustments

• Depletion of– Energy storage, i.e., soil– Cover—erosion– Water

Problems

• Can the land adjust?– Yes

• Western Europe

• Japan

• Northeast US

– No• Asia Minor

• North Africa

• South America

• Southwest US

Problems

• Can less intrusive means be developed?– Keep populations below the carrying capacity– The less violent the man made changes, the

greater the probability of successful readjustment in the pyramid.

– Violence, in turn, varies with human population density

• A dense population requires more violent conversion.

Requirements of a Land Ethics

• Organisms have a right to continue

• Preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community

Alternatives

• Government regulation– Problems become too large, too complex, or too widely

dispersed to be performed by government.

• Private self-interest– Conservation has failed to conserve

• Land Ethic– An ethical obligation on the part of the private owner is

the only visible remedy for these situations.

Impediments to a Land Ethics

• Improper education– Ecological training is scarce

• Outgrowing the land

Jared DiamondCollapse

• Causes of collapse – Environmental damage – Climate change – Hostile neighbors – Interdependencies – Social response

Environmental Damage

• Deforestation • Soil exhaustion • Water scarcity • Over-exploiting resources • Environmental impact • Introduction of new species • Over-population • Environmental toxicity through pollution• Induced climate change

• Energy shortage

Future Problems

• Natural resource problems – Habitat exhaustion – Food – Ecological diversity– Soil exhaustion

• Pollution – Chemical – Alien species

Future Problems

• Ceilings – Energy – Water – Photosynthetic capacity

• Population – Size – Impact