A Sand County Almanac essays

A Sand County Almanac essays In Aldo Leopolds book A Sand County Almanac, Aldo discussed many thoughts, ideas and feelings about the environment and mans interaction with it. He was able to describe his surrounds with amazing ingenuity. One can connect with what Leopold says as he takes us through one thought provoking idea after another in his book. One thought that Leopold described, which holds true to this day, is the concept of a Land Ethic and why such an ethic is needed. Leopold also discusses various barriers that stand in the way of implementing such an ethic. According to Aldo Leopold, man has yet to enforce any sort of ethics in how we treat the land and its inhabitants. It seems that all man really cares about is if we will benefit economically from our relationship with the land regardless of the consequences. What Leopold suggests is that we consider applying the same ethical views to the land as we give each other. Instead of being conquerors of the land, we need to think of ourselves as being a member of biotic community, which includes plants, animals, soil and water. If we think of our relationships with each other and the land in this manner, the thought is that we will give greater consideration and respect to our surroundings before we do something to harm or affect the land. Naturally, there will be a need for us to use the land to our benefit. However, in using the lands limited resources, we need to consider and manage the ways in which we harvest what we need as to limit our impact to the biotic community in which w e live. By having a Land Ethic, man will understand and do what is ethically correct when interacting with his surroundings. The concept of a Land Ethic is a very unique idea. However, given various barriers, implementing such an ethic seems almost impossible in todays society. Unfortunately, man does not view himself as a member of a biotic community as previously described....