Aldo Leopold Ecocentrism essays

Aldo Leopold Ecocentrism essays Ecocentrism: The Land Ethic By: Aldo Leopold This is a summary of Leopold's ideas and my views on them. 1) Leopold strongly suggests the need for land ethic because he sees a great lack for it. Humans see land as an economical resource. Land is used for our needs and enjoyment with the belief that we are the ruler and conqueror of the land. Humans feel superior to the land and all that live on it and therefore lack the sense of being a part of land. To have land ethic is to become a part of the land not a disconnected from it. When we separate ourselves from the land, we forget our obligation to take care of it. We use, abuse, and take land for granted. We are the ultimate consumers of land. Leopold suggests that adopting land ethic will change the human role of conqueror to a plain member citizen. I strongly agree with this point. Like everything else in nature, humans tend to think that anything that is incapable of speaking for itself is there for our use. We have all grown to be consumers. Not many of us think about how much of our resources are extracted and depleted f rom land everyday. We need to incorporate land ethic into education so that future generations can start thinking differently. If we dont start thinking differently, we are going to lose a lot of our precious land. 2) The community concept that Leopold refers to derives from the human-nature relationship. As humans, we think of ourselves as superior beings to the environment. We treat the environment in a way that it suits us. We fail to take into consideration that we are a part of the environment, not the master of it. The lack of this realization is the cause of most of the harm that we inflict on the earth. It is because we are so disconnected from the rest of the environment that we do not feel as though we are harming the earth. It is the day that man feels one with the env ...