reflecting on the Land Ethic

During the week following Aldo Leopold's birthday, I'm still reflecting on the parts of his teachings that I have incorporated into my own worldview.

" ...he offers a view of  land as something more  than  mere  physical  media. Land  is a biotic community. It  includes  the  soils, of   course, but  also all  the  microscopic and macroscopic  life  inhabiting  a  physical environ. Under this view, the human  is just one member species living interdependently and in community with other species. Systemic integrity and stability of  the entire ecological organism are measures by which   to  judge  the ethical  content  of    human  behaviors  and  policies." (see  more  of   Bob  Sandmeyer's  article at:  http://www.academia.edu/1666398/An_Existential_Interpretation_of_Aldo_Leopold_s_Concept_of_Land

Aldo Leopold and the Land Ethic

Yesterday was Aldo Leopold's birthday. He was a true conservation icon, and a ground-breaking professor at the University of Wisconsin, but so much more to many of us. He died the year after I was born, but I view him as my teacher in so many ways.

Read about the Land Ethic, one of his most significant intellectual accomplishments: http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/landethic.shtml

Wilderness.net's page on Leopold: http://www.wilderness.net/NWPS/Leopold

How is nature or the natural world, and our relationship to it, "critical to a 21st century urban ethic?"

Read about this emerging discussion at the website of the Center for Humans and Nature:   http://www.humansandnature.org/how-is-nature-critical-to-a-21st-century-urban-ethic--question-8.php

our ethical relationship to the natural world

Starting decades ago, I developed what became a growing interest in environmental ethics. During the past five years, I've spent a considerable amount of time reading even more recent literature in this discipline. By far the clearest exposition of these ideas - for me - comes from the 2012 book from one of the "grandfathers" in this field: Professor Holmes Rolston III, who taught at Colorado State University for many years. "A New Environmental Ethics: The Next Millennium for Life on Earth" is both a foundational background in understanding the issues, and a guide to looking toward the future. I really can't recommend any book more enthusiastically. It has informed and changed my understanding of the issues in many ways. 

behavioral response to climate change

Although it is already a few years old, this article from the Garrison Institute is worthwhile reading in the discussion regarding our behavioral response to climate change:
 http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/combatting-global-climate-change-with-individual-behavioral-change

We have serious choices to make. Making some of those choices will inconvenience us in powerful ways. It's time to hold the personal soul-searching conversations, and decide on personal courses of action.

Some areas for consideration:

Air travel:

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/climate-change/science/climate-change-basics/air-travel-and-climate-change/

Ways to respond:

http://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/reduce-your-carbon-footprint/travel-sustainably/

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/climate-change/science/climate-change-basics/carbon-offsets/

But, then what?

There are long-term personal investments to make in educating ourselves about the issues at stake. 

Big-picture related issues:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001881/188198e.pdf

http://www.alternet.org/environment/ethics-climate-hope-naomi-kleins-response-elizabeth-kolberts-review-changes-everything

http://www.un-redd.org/