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What is an ethical sequence?
This is the question Aldo Leopold posed in his essay
"A Land Ethic"
Aldo Leopold, was a 19th & 20th century, wildlife biologist, conservationist, and ecologist. He defined humans as citizens of nature and called upon us to do the right thing.
Property ownership, control and disposal as a matter of expediency is a basic American attitude about land.
1-2 the ethical structure of ancient Greece extended protection to wives but not human chattel -- hence slave women were disposed of by masters.
3 As ethical criteria are extended >, there is a corresponding shrinkage in the realms of expediency <
4 Extension of ethics = process of ecological evolution
Ethics are defined as: "a limitation on the freedom of action" social from anti-social conduct evolve modes of social cooperation advanced symbioses (Politics and Economics)
Ethics are defined as: "a limitation on the freedom of action"
social from anti-social conduct
evolve modes of social cooperation
advanced symbioses (Politics and Economics)
5 complexity of coop mechanisms
6 relation between individuals & people in society
7 no ethic for land-use
8
9
10 Community members of a community of interdependent parts
ethics suggest cooperation among otherwise competing interests
11 simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include
soils plants and animals collectively the land
12 right to continued existence
13 from conqueror to plain member of ecological community
14 the conqueror role is eventually self-defeating
15 education hampers the knowing that we eat, drink & breathe land
16 bio-mechanism is so complex -- as to be beyond scientific comprehension
17 an ecological interpretation of history
18 bluegrass was once cane-breaks of central USA
19 soils are keystones to culture
20 southwest occupancy bread erosion and retreat of land
lead to a mutual deterioration of plants and soils!
21 Anasazi had no cattle to loot the land
22 plant succession steered the course of history!
Property | Conscience | Substitutes | Community | Cleavage | Outlook | Interpretation | Land Next
Next
II.
.
The Ecological Conscience
23 Conservation is a state of harmony between people and land
24 How important is the volume or content of knowing?
25 people only practice what conservation is profitable
26 no sacrifice -- no obligations only enlightened self-interest
27 topsoil slipping seaward -- Wisconsin
due to immediate visible economic gain!
28 selected those remedial practices -- profitable anyhow
29 we have more education and less soil ! [prophetic]
30 economic self-interest dominates our land values
31 institutions too timid & too anxious for quick success
extension of social conscience from people to land
32 loyalties, affections & commitments must be challenged and changed
by making conservation easy we make it trivial!
ecology
Substitutes for a land ethic
33 stones in lieu of an ethic (bread) [stones unlike bread are not nourishing our appetite]
34 members with no economic value are under appreciated or depreciation
integrity means entitled to continued existence (blue-green bacteria, methanogens, wetlands, bogs,)
integrity means entitled to continued existence
(blue-green bacteria, methanogens, wetlands, bogs,)
35 evidence has to be economic to be important (believed/ heeded)
36 do birds have a biotic right to exist?
37 still at the 'talk stage'
38 economic forestry reduces diversity
39 marshes, bogs, dunes, deserts! Whole communities are depreciated
40 muskrat marshes
41 relegating unproductive tasks to government {CCPP game}
42 industrial attitudes
43 owner attitudes
44 economics self-interestedness is lopsided
45 remedy is the private owners love of the land
Property | Conscience | Substitutes | Community | Cleavage | Outlook | Interpretation | Land
IV.
community
The land ethic enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils waters, plants and animals, or collectively: the land.
Land Pyramid is an actual energy flow from the sun to the plants to the organisms in a conduit of life.
Land pyramid reveals a sense of dynamism as a basis for the development of an ecological conscience or a moral compassion we develop for our fellow creatures.
The essays define conservation, a conservation aesthetic based on the time and place of ecologically essential events, and a behavioral guide on how to further an ecological ethic as the precondition for successful, effective and equitable conservation.
Defines and adopts an ecological view of history enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils waters, plants and animals, or collectively: the land. p. 239.
V.
A/B Cleavage
Describes a new approach} to conservation in the A | B Cleavage
p. 258.
In the use of natural features, resources, and places Aldo Leopold distinguishes a commodity or production view as separate from the inherent biologically functional view that forms the basis of biological wealth.
Biotic wealth preservation account approaches [Leopold does not use these specific terms but he does examine a split between two approaches he calls the "A | B cleavage." to explain his argument]:
a) autistic (agronomic, meaning agricultural economics as narrow) b) biophiliacs ( ecocentric or biocentric focus on "whole landscape thinking"
Two different types of investment decisions
1) future value of a forest diminishes with high interest rates 2) common property, keystone elements in ecological management. The public land system exists in these states.
1) future value of a forest diminishes with high interest rates
2) common property, keystone elements in ecological management.
Weal
water symbolizes
redemption rivers and streams - watershed
energy is eternal delight
sources of useful power
atmosphere
surrounding climate
landscape
vegetation, wildlife & fisheries
All four components of the habitat create together =
A dynamic feed-back loop upon itself in a self-renewing process of becoming alive.
health is the capacity of the land for self renewal. p. 258. functional relations rely on limiting factors Next
health is the capacity of the land for self renewal. p. 258.
functional relations rely on limiting factors
A new ecological way to think about the biotic community.
partnership: two begin to function as one dynamic partnerships; eukaryotic cells may have originated this way!
symbiosis:
Clown angelfish and sea anemones
Is the entire planet symbiotic?
VI.
The outlook
Admiration, if not love –respect and adoration–means a high regard for land's value.
Ten parts of the essay on a land ethic are:
1, educational and economic incentives are headed away from
true modern "separated from the land" "Synthetic substitutes" golf-links 'scenic' area
true modern "separated from the land"
"Synthetic substitutes" golf-links 'scenic' area
2, attitude of the farmer adversarial or slave to nature
3, ecological comprehension
4, minority revolt against the modern trends
5, not solely an economic problem, but a perception and a behavioral one!
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community." The meaning of the quote.
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community."
The meaning of the quote.
6, economic feasibility limits the resilience of our tether to natural areas
7, evolved in the minds of a thinking community; Moses 10 commandments
8, an intellectual as well as emotional process -- critical understanding
9, social approbation for right actions; social disapproval in six stages:
shame sin ridicule punishment banishment deprivation
10, problem of attitudes and implements
Summary.
The many meanings of Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic
natural objects as indicators, are really circuit breakers, enunciators; these instruments reveal a condition of a functioning unit that require our attention, maintenance or overhaul.
natural features emerge as symbols -- tree branches, tributary streams, cycles, sources, or refugia for unseen processes that sustain life on earth.
NATURE • intrinsic value • inherent behavior what is it worth?
People have developed a misplaced trust in science
§ seeking "cures" is not the same as finding ecological (cancer) answers § we really are members of a biotic team § manipulating the external world has consequences for our own inner metabolism and reproductive successes § the very proteins and amino acids, made of nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus are the same vital elements we share with all other nature's living and once living creatures.
§ seeking "cures" is not the same as finding ecological (cancer) answers
§ we really are members of a biotic team
§ manipulating the external world has consequences for our own inner metabolism and reproductive successes
§ the very proteins and amino acids, made of nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus are the same vital elements we share with all other nature's living and once living creatures.
Nature is?
p. 241
plant succession -- history
p. 243
extension of ethics
p. 238
community concept
p. 239
Land } emerges as a collective organism with needs.
Weal & Laws of conservation, minimum, ecology. with capacities self renewal and keystone species
As a partner we can we become members of the biological community as equal citizens?
dynamic dancing: adaptive learning, negating functionality intense consciousness of land (p.243, quoted from 251, 253.) The violence, rapidity and scope of man-made changes, warrants our attention, behavioral change, and deeper commitment to life. (p. 254.) wisdom of biotic navigation Next
dynamic dancing: adaptive learning, negating functionality
intense consciousness of land
(p.243, quoted from 251, 253.)
The violence, rapidity and scope of man-made changes, warrants our attention, behavioral change, and deeper commitment to life.
(p. 254.)
wisdom of biotic navigation
The Round River,
p. 189.
history and ecology ... contrive to limit the land's carrying capacity or density. (land due to water and energy)
That in the beauty of the natural world is the stability and permanence of existence; inalterable, inalienable, irretrievable, it is the world that created and maintains us!
if the land ethic is ever to be demonstrable
see feel understand love, respect and admiration Next
see feel understand love, respect and admiration
Have faith in the land organism: the mere thin edge of the Land Organism is seen merely as landscapes.
Because the natural world is beyond our vision of it. Rachel Carson, J. B. S. Haldane
But landscapes are really conspiracies of bacteria, fungus, animals and plants to utilize, redistribute, and extensively preserve the nutrients and energy on which all life depends.
If we are ever to save vegetation, wildlife, and fisheries, then a land ethic a precondition for conserving those ecosystem service we must have to be productive and healthy!
Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.
The exhaustion of wilderness in the more habitable portions of the globe.
That man-made changes are of a different order (magnitude) than evolutionary changes, and have effects (population) more comprehensive than is intended or foreseen.
Persistent biases | conservation vs. preservation | ecosystem services | complexity
Last Updated on 3/1/2000 & 5/25.2010.
By Joseph Siry
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Land, value of
Land, value of