A Critique of Aldo Leopold Land Ethic for Environmental Management

Maxwell-Borjor Achuk Eba

doi:10.26858/jo.v6i2.17974

Abstract

There is no question of doubt that Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) is regarded as the most influential figure in the development of an economic environmental ethics. The cornerstone of his environmental ethics is science. In fact, the science of ecology in the real sense of the term was developed during his life time and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was the first person to call for a radical rethink of ethics in the light of science. In his collective essays published posthumously as A Sand Country Almanac (1949), the essay ‘Land Ethic’ included in this book is the systematic presentation of an eco-centric ethics. This work attempt to critique Aldo Leopold Land ethics for environmental management. This work applauds Aldo Leopold ‘land ethic’ because he sees the ecosystem as an organic wholes and its values implicit in concepts such as integrity and stability, health and well-being. However, this work criticized Aldo Leopold ‘Land Ethics’ because his view of organic model of ecological systems is inadequate. This is because of the fact that species within an ecosystem could exist outside the organism. Thus, Aldo Leopold ‘land ethic’ is not holistic enough.

Highlights

Before the appearance of Leopold‟s „Land Ethic‟, the society was dominated and influenced by the Lockean view of land as property
He says that we have no land ethic yet but we are at least nearing to the point of admitting that birds should continue as a matter of biotic right
When we talk of environmental holism with regard to Leopold‟s Land Ethic, we are basically inclined towards an extension of moral standing to all natural communities

Summary

LITERATURE REVIEW

The Concept of the Biotic Pyramid In this context, Leopold introduces the „biotic pyramid‟ or „land pyramid‟ for assisting us to understand the nature of the biotic community. The land ethic of Leopold appears as a fairly comprehensive theory including both biotic and abiotic communities within the sphere of environment It functions as a decision-making process for most environmental and ecological issues. Leopold is committed to a form of ethical holism and in this regard he inclines to say that the right and wrong of moral doing are a function of the well-being of the community, not of its constituent members According to this view, it would ethically be permissible to kill individual deer so long as the „integrity, stability, and beauty‟ of the deer population were preserved. The concepts of integrity and stability as maintained by an organism is one thing and the integrity and stability of a community or energy circuit is quite another These are crucial questions for the land ethic. As a result of that he left nothing out and incorporated everything

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION