Free Essays on Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold: Philosophy of Conservation In â€Å"A Sand County Almanac† written by Aldo Leopold he describes his lessons, his concerns, and his love of nature and its conservation. Through out the book one thing is obvious, Leopold’s fire about nature and his hatred about what we as humans do to it ignorantly. He says it best in this quote â€Å"Above all we should, in the century since Darwin, have come to know that man, while captain of the adventuring ship, is hardly the sole object of its quest, and that his prior assumptions to this effect arose from the simple necessity of whistling in the dark.†(p109) Leopold basically says in this quote that humans are very greedy and stupid creatures. Humans only think of themselves and what will be best for us, and not for the environment. Once the environments condition starts effecting is when we start paying attention. Trees and animals cannot talk so we must talk for them and think for them also. When we do something to the environment we should th ink of the effects to it and what it will disturb and ultimately lead to. When we don’t think of these things and destroy habitat of animals it ultimately leads to extinction. Leopold also had a significant passage about extinction, â€Å"For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. The Cro-Magnon who slew the last mammoth thought only of steaks. The sportsman who shot the last [Passenger] pigeon thought only of his prowess. The sailor who clubbed the last auck thought of nothing at all. But we, who have lost our pigeons, mourn the loss. Had the funeral been ours, the pigeons would hardly have mourned us. In this fact, rather than in Mr. DuPont's nylons or Mr. Vannevar Bush's bombs, lies objective evidence of our superiority over the beasts. (p109-110) This passage is nothing but true and makes Leopold sick because we think absolutely nothing about it. The person who kills the last tiger will only ... Free Essays on Aldo Leopold Free Essays on Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold: Philosophy of Conservation In â€Å"A Sand County Almanac† written by Aldo Leopold he describes his lessons, his concerns, and his love of nature and its conservation. Through out the book one thing is obvious, Leopold’s fire about nature and his hatred about what we as humans do to it ignorantly. He says it best in this quote â€Å"Above all we should, in the century since Darwin, have come to know that man, while captain of the adventuring ship, is hardly the sole object of its quest, and that his prior assumptions to this effect arose from the simple necessity of whistling in the dark.†(p109) Leopold basically says in this quote that humans are very greedy and stupid creatures. Humans only think of themselves and what will be best for us, and not for the environment. Once the environments condition starts effecting is when we start paying attention. Trees and animals cannot talk so we must talk for them and think for them also. When we do something to the environment we should th ink of the effects to it and what it will disturb and ultimately lead to. When we don’t think of these things and destroy habitat of animals it ultimately leads to extinction. Leopold also had a significant passage about extinction, â€Å"For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. The Cro-Magnon who slew the last mammoth thought only of steaks. The sportsman who shot the last [Passenger] pigeon thought only of his prowess. The sailor who clubbed the last auck thought of nothing at all. But we, who have lost our pigeons, mourn the loss. Had the funeral been ours, the pigeons would hardly have mourned us. In this fact, rather than in Mr. DuPont's nylons or Mr. Vannevar Bush's bombs, lies objective evidence of our superiority over the beasts. (p109-110) This passage is nothing but true and makes Leopold sick because we think absolutely nothing about it. The person who kills the last tiger will only ... Free Essays on Aldo Leopold Leopold Essays Aldo Leopold, a wildlife conservationist, wrote the â€Å"Land Ethic† to alert the American people of the unethical use of land in the United States. He stresses the importance of creating a universal understanding that land needs to be preserved, and that will only come when humans adopt a land ethic. He compares the ethics in business and society to the ethics in land use; concluding, people need to be educated in a â€Å"land ethic† as they are in business ethics. Land is considered private property by many, and most people believe that they can do whatever they please with their own personal property, but there are millions of organisms that live on this planet and rely on the land to survive. Leopold doesn’t ask his fellow man to stop the management of land, he simply pleads to allow for a continued existence of the land, and in some areas the existence of land in its natural state. Land is the foundation in the biotic pyramid, where all life’s energy begins. The land gives life to plants, which feed insects, who make up meals for larger animals, which end up being the food for larger carnivores. Humans need to be more thoughtful when using the land, for a love and appreciation of the land is necessary before an ethical relation to the land can exist. The pleas that Leopold makes to acquire an ethical outlook on land use are necessary. His concepts of how humans should treat the land with love and respect are even more widely known today because of him. Environmental issues have become concerns of the majority of Americans today, but when he wrote the book, the Sandy County Almanac, many of the issues and ideas he explains were new to people. He inspired a need for land reform in the hearts and minds of millions. When I read this essay, I found many of his concepts to be very interesting and important, although it wasn’t the first time I heard these ideas. The biotic pyramid says the land is...