Aldo Leopold, a wildlife conservationist, wrote the "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 "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 the foundation of life on this planet and all living organisms are somehow connected through the food chain.
