Leapolds Land Ethic - Essay Example

Overview of Leopold’s land ethics Leopold states that it is imperative to incorporate human beings and non human factors of the ecosystem when developing ethical standards. As such, the collectivity of human and non human elements of the ecosystem is referred to as land. The ethics developed as a result of the human and non human collectivity within the ecosystem is referred to as land ethics. According to him, the principle of land ethics is aimed at preserving the beauty, stability and integrity of the biotic community and so anything, action or view that tends to counteract this opinion is considered to be wrong.

In his view, the intention of land ethics is to increase the boundary of the community from one that incorporates only human beings to that which includes waters, animals, plants and soils. The land ethics shifts the Homo sapiens’ roles from being conquerors to being citizens of the land community. Respect for the land community is vital for sustainable and stable ecosystem. Leopold’s view of developing a balanced, stable and friendly environmental system to include all aspects of nature is supported by Baird Callicott, who expounds the land ethics by developing an environmental ethics that call for inclusion of other non human elements in the human legacy.

Leopold’s ideas is well expounded in his deeds when he was employed to terminate bears, mountain lions and wolves in new Mexico(Leopold and Michael 42).The local ranger hated the predators because they used to attack their livestock, but Leopold views were different because he felt that they were part of nature and had a positive role in maintaining a balanced ecosystem. For instance, if all predators were terminated, their natural prey would increase exponentially resulting in extreme competition with rangers’ animals for vegetation, a fact that would be disastrous to both the ranchers and the balance of the ecosystem.

Basing on Leopold’s land ethics, there is a close relationship between ecosystem balance and evolution, but human factors have brought detrimental impact on the relationship causing disastrous results to the course of nature (Leopold and Michael 72). The relationship between land ethics and evolution and how man has come to affect it Evolution is a gradual and natural change of biological population over a period of time. It occurs in natural settings and results in extinction of some species and development of other generations.

Charles Darwin is a major proponent of evolution theory and his ideas have been instrumental in the formulation of land ethics. The relevant ideas in land ethics that were influenced by Darwinian’s natural selection principal hold that the survival and reproduction of animals is well achieved within cooperative group, no groups can remain integrated without necessary ethical standards and ethics are started within the family cooperation of species. Darwinian’s notion is reflected well in land theory which calls for cooperation between humans beings and non human factors of the ecosystem to ensure stability of biotic system and sustainable living conditions.

For evolution to occur well, it must take a natural trend. However, if other factors distort the natural pathway, there is likely to be an unexpected