Entry #9 - Environmental Ethics

Excerpt from: A Sand County Almanac

by Aldo Leopold

Ethics for the World Around Us

               Societies have created an ethical standard between people, societies, businesses and organizations, and some animals.  However, most people don't have an ethical standard with land and feel that can do whatever they want with it.  Many people don't think about how their landscaping or the fertilizers and pesticides they use will affect the environment elsewhere.  Some people do thinks about the effects, but think they're so small that it doesn't matter.  The ethics we have towards other people need to be a standard for the environment and ecosystem, which include soils, waters, animals, and plants.  Ethics provide us with guidance in order for us to do what's right for our societies.

               I think people in the past are much like people in the present when it comes to land- some are careful, some destroy it, but we all use it to our benefit, unknowing to what the long term effects may be.  What can we do for the conservation of land?  Aldo Leopold writes, "obey the law, vote right, join some organizations, and practice what conservation is profitable on your land; the government will do the rest."  The author doesn't seem to have much faith in the over majority of the population and I can understand where he's coming from.  Many people won't continually do good things for the environment unless it will benefit them monetarily or if it's convenient.  It's the sad truth.  I liked the example the author uses regarding songbirds.  The number of songbirds started declining and we didn't make any changes until there was "distinctly shaky evidence to the effect that insects would eat us up if birds failed to control them."  Not everyone is this selfish and I hope the future brings more unselfish people.  The government has thankfully stepped into many areas to create conservation, such as preserves, water management, parks and wilderness management, and forestry regulations.  The government helps keep the land pyramid together.  Not everyone likes the government control, but I think it's good in these cases because it keeps greedy businesses from destroying the environment.

~Max G.