One of the readings for this week was “The land Ethic,” by Aldo Leopold from a Sand County Almanac written in 1948. Leopold outlines the ethical sequence. He defines philosophical ethics as a differentiation between social conduct and non social conduct. He describes how people view the land as property and people have a view of the land as something which is economical (Leopold, page 1). He describes how in order for an ethical relation to land to exist people first need to love respect and admire the land for its value. Value has to go beyond economical value. 

Throughout history, people have looked to the land to find some sort of resource. Although the movie is rife with historical inaccuracies, I remember the song “Mine,” from Pocahontas (https://youtu.be/DSfYrPdTKVA). Governor Ratcliffe is obsessed with digging up the land to find gold and make himself rich. When we look to our modern day, especially in the province of Alberta, people value the resource of black gold, or oil. People are willing to destroy entire ecosystems in order to make a profit. I think the fact that so many people in Alberta rely on the oil field to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table, it can be hard to look past the economic benefits and look towards valuing the land. Leopold also describes colonial migration and the battles over the cane lands. These battles took place because the lands eventually grew bluegrass which was quite valuable. 

In historical times people had a direct connection to the land but this reading describes how we are becoming further separated from the land. He demonstrates that when we are out of the city and away from our technology; we experience boredom. So many things around us are synthetic. These include substitutes for wood, leather, and wool. The substitutes have become preferable to the original. He says that people have outgrown the land (Leopold page 6). 

He goes into what I think is a very important point, and that is an ecological comprehension of the land. In order to have ecological comprehension, one needs to be educated about important matters of ecology. Formal education may not be enough in this case. I am in my final year of university and for my degree it was not necessary to receive much training concerning ecology. Leopold also makes the point that this training can come from other courses such as geography, botany, agronomy, history or economics (Leopold, page 6).I agree with him the ecological training is scarce. 

I think in order for people to care more about ecology, they have to have training in some form. I think it is difficult for people to care about matters which they cannot comprehend. When people read books by philosophers such as Leopold they begin to think about matters which they might never had thought of before. On environmental health news they have an article called  Building a library of American environmental classics: Part One. One of the books mentioned is Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s book The Everglades: River of Grass. This book made Americans reconsider their views on the everglades. Her writing made the everglades be viewed in a positive light as an ecological treasure, and not just a swamp full of bugs and gators.  (https://www.ehn.org/top-environmental-books-part-1-2647584261.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1)

In conclusion, I think the more we learn about ecosystems the more we will have cause to care for them, and have the desire to extend ethical views to further protect them.. Leopold says (page 6) the evolution of a land ethic is an intellectual and an emotional process.

We have a responsibility to learn as much as we possibly can and do everything we can to protect the land and natural resources around us.