The mean of Leopold’s land community concept is “The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land” (Leopold,1). And also, land ethics is turning human roles from conquerors of the land to a citizen of the community which means humans need to respect to the other citizen and respect to the community (Leopold,1). Land ethics recognizes the significance of the existence of nature, but do humans really respect these natural things? Do we love the soil, water, plants and animals, as mentioned in Leopold’s article? The answer is no because anthropocentrism and community conqueror behaviour are destroying the community. The conqueror’s ecological concept was to see the ecosystem as something that could help them increase their own interests. Overgrazing, agriculture, building houses and so on have brought economic development to humans. But destruction naturally causes the degradation of plants and soil. Such degradation has led to the degradation of animal populations that depend on them. Egoism always puts the interests first and does not treat other creatures equally. They only want the maximum interests to themselves; they ignore the interests of the community. The current social situation is that Leopold’s concept of land community is still progressing slowly.
Is it really useful to strengthen education on land conservation? Leopold mentioned that the content of education is actually ” It defines no right or wrong, assigns no obligation, calls for no sacrifice, implies no change in the current philosophy of values ” and “In respect of land-use, it urges only enlightened self-interest”(Leopold,2). When the government takes measures, such as asking farmers to take measures to protect their land within five years, the government will give corresponding compensation in terms of machinery or other aspects. But when the measure ended five years later, no farmers would consciously protect their land. For farmers, the immediate interests are the best, so they will not change their values, they just want to explore more land to do agriculture and make their lives better. But planting more is also destroying more forests, which also brings us global warming problems. If a human does not change their beliefs and values, the concept of equal respect for biology will not be formed.
As mentioned in Leopold’s article, the land pyramid is based on the soil. This pyramid is also a food chain. Up there are plants, insects, birds, animals and so on, and then the top. The conqueror placed himself at the top and could do whatever he wanted. But the pyramid is one layer linked to another, and finally back to the soil. Pyramids are fluid, and it can be strengthened or weakened by constant biological changes. If humans cut down excessively, the birds will have no habitat, which may lead to the extinction of birds. It will cause bird predators to have no food because predators do not eat what birds eat. So the food chain will break into an unbalanced state. Whether the land can adapt to the new food chain is still unknown. But are humans really at the top of the pyramid? The conqueror also depends on land to develop. If the foundation of the pyramid is destroyed, how can the conqueror develop?
Based on my understanding, there is nothing wrong with the pursuit of human interests, but the actions of conquerors have harmed the natural environment. Now humans are experiencing global warming, rising water levels, water pollution and so on. The origin cause of these problems is the conqueror’s overexploitation and disrespect for nature. The pursuit of interests always makes people lost and unable to think rationally, which makes the conquerors unable to stop their steps and then reflect on the impact of their actions on the community. I think they have an obligation to respect and treat any organism in the biosphere equally and protect the integrity of the biological chain. Instead of turning natural resources into their own interests. We can’t think of ourselves as the top of the food chain just because we have the ability to create and develop. The relationship between humans and any living creature is complementary. No species can be separated from the environment, all need the support of the environment, including people.
Yiyang
Works Cited:
Leopold Aldo. (1948). The Land Ethic.
Hi, Yiyang, I quite agree with your point of view in the article. We should protect the ecology and the integrity of the biological chain. So, We should pay attention to how to protect the land. In “The Land Ethic,” the author said education is a way to change people’s values. In my opinion, education is the only way to protect our environment. First of all, the values formed by education can be passed down from generation to generation, so that people will protect the environment as one of their beliefs. Second, compared with subsidies, education can solve the problem from a long-term perspective. The earth is where we live, and it is not reliable to use subsidies to protect the land. Even in the short term, the return of education is very small, but if we want to live on the earth for generations, we must change people’s values through education and call on people to protect the environment. In all, to protect the environment and protect the land is everyone’s obligation, and we can’t let subsidies become people’s action force.
By Yunxiang