The Land Ethic

Exam 3

Leopold

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Thinking Like a Mountain

-The mountain fears the deer because it feeds on the vegetation that keeps the mountain functioning

-Thinking like a mountain is about thinking long term ecology 

-He believes if we kill the wolves (the predator), it will lead to the overpopulation of deer

-State after state they have been passing laws that allows the free hunting of wolves (varmints)-pests 

You can kill as many as you want 

• As a result they are finding their mountain bear. And the deer don’t have any food

What is Leopold’s idea?

 the wolf's howl signifies wilderness and treat

What does Leopold suggest we do?

May we should understand their howl as not a threat but a cry for ecological balance

Without the wolves…

every edible bush and seedling is browsed. Anemia, then death. Starved bones

How does the Mountain live?

in mortal fear of the deer, just as the deer live in fear of the wolves. While a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in 2-3 years, the biotic mountain range may take many decades

How about the cowman?

The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf’s job of trimming the herd to fit the range. He has not learned to think like a mountain (Leopold does)

As a result of not thinking like a mountain…

we have dustbowls, and rivers washing the future into the sea

The main idea quote

“Perhaps this is the hidden meaning of the work if the wolf, long known among mountains, seldom perceived among humans”

The Land Ethic

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Odysseus

hanged a dozen slave-girls he suspected of misbehavior in his absence. He was disposing of his absence. He was disposing of his property

What does Leopold say about the concepts of right and wrong?

Concepts of right.wrong were not lacking in Odysseus Greece, just their application to human property. We have since continued our expansion of ethical criteria

Leopold believes what about extension of ethics?

Extension of ethics is a process of ecology evolution

• Thinking of ethics as a tool to improve our lives

• But we need norms and rules

What are two beliefs regarding extension of ethics?

Ethics are limitations on freedom of action in the struggle for existence, distinguishing social from anti-social conduct (both emerging from the evolution of modes of cooperation)

First between individuals (eg. 10 commandments), then between individual and society (e.g. the Golden Rule, democracy)

• Once we come together as a community, this is where we build upon it

What is the main goal:

to live lives and find ecological niches for ourselves

Currently do we have a relationship with the land?

We do not have an ethic dealing with humanity’s relationship to the land

• We need a relationship to ensure survival

-This is an evolutionary possibly, and an ecological necessity

-An ethic for meeting ecological situations so new, intricate or long term that the average person cannot discern the “path of social expediency”

Is Leopold pro science?

Leopold is pro science because we need to realize how complicated these systems are

What does Leopold say about the normal person?

The normal person believes that science knows what makes a community function. The scientist is sure that she does not

• the scientists do not know everything. They are confident in some and not in other

• The biotic mechanism is far too complex, maybe never being understood

(In short, science is hard and ecology is complex)

What does Leopold say about obeying the law?

We cannot just “obey the law, vote right, join some organization, and practices what conservation if profitable on your own land” while thinking the government will do the rest

• Merely enlightened self-interest (e.g. farmer-selected policies were chosen via self-interest)

• Leoplod agrees that self-interest on your own land is not going to do it. He says we need a social conscience

What does Leopold say about obligations and self-interest?

We presume obligations regarding roads, schools, churches, etc. that go beyond self-interest…and so we need a similar "'social conscience" form people to land

How do we get this social conscience?

-We already have this social conscience, we just need to apply it to the broader aspect to the land and beyond the human community

What should we do?

extend social conscience to the land because if we rely on economic to determine the demand there are aspects of the ecosystem that have little to no value

Most members of the Land Community…

Most members of the Land Community have no economic value (e.g. wildflowers, songbirds), even while ecological stability depends on them

Value of songbirds is only understood in terms of insect consumption and crop protection

Marshes, bogs, deserts, seen as lacking economic value

The Land Ethic is the answer to what?

Social-intellectual-emotional evolution

An ethical relation to the Land cannot exist without love, respect, admiration for the land

Regard for its intrinsic value

• We have to rethink what community looks like in social evolution. We have to learn

True modern world…

is separated from nature, in favor of synthetic substitutes

Because of this, in order for ecological comprehension…

Ecological comprehension requires understanding ecology (including geography, botany, agronomy, history, and economics)

A thing is right…

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise

For example, how would Leopold’s Land ethic respond to interfering with the mountains like he did in his other piece?

If we interfere with the mountains like in his other piece, what we did was bad because we interfered with the mountain’s stability

Wilderness and Ecology DJ- Chapter 6

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What do environmentalists say?

Environmentalists charge biocentrism with not going far enough

We need ecocentrism, granting ethical consideration to non living natural objects and ecological systems

Biocentrism is …

Moral Holism

Moral Holism

ethical considerations go beyond considerability of the parts

• Just like corporations have legal standing, ecosystems should have some considerably beyond the consideration of the components

The core of ecology

Ecosystem

Ecosystem

Ecosystem- areas in which a variety of organisms interact in mutually beneficial ways with the living and nonliving environment

Ecologists seek to understand and explain these systematic relations and dependencies

Dj says we need to do what?

Widen our scopes. Here we should consider the value of wilderness?

What principle should guide our interaction with the wilderness?

What ethical basis is there for protecting wilderness?

Should we manage the wilderness? How? Protect/persevere? Restore?

Do we have responsibilities to restore the wilderness?

Wilderness Act

Wilderness Act of 1964- “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain”

The US Government can set aside large swaths of land, protected from developments and commercial activities

• Get federal land made into national parks

The concept of wilderness…

The concept of wilderness is more complex than may first appear

“Out there” separate from human activities (Inside outside natural where there is a line between us and natural)

Indigenous folks were unlikely to have this concept

Few wilderness areas are “untrammeled” by human beings (eg. pollution) (Human technology and industrialization is very global: it's hard to find an area that is not)

Many wilderness areas require what?

Many wilderness areas require maintenance

• They are not capturing wilderness as these ethical views would want

Modern critics argue what?

Modern critics argue that this idea of wilderness is a myth

• A product of romantic ideas of the sublime, “to glimpse the face of god”, and frontier ideas, that rugged individuals tested themselves against nature

What do Philosophers say?

Philosophers disagree about the lessons to be drawn from ecology

Four models of ecosystems

1. Organic

2. System

3. Community

4. Energy model

Organic model

Organic model- organisms relate to their environment like an organ to the body

Environments are health, diseased, matured, young, etc

Ecology systems have a natural telos, we can determine what is good for these systems in a scientific matter

In the organic model…

A climax community is the single stable and relatively permanent population toward which a particular location or habitat progresses. (Cowles and Clements)

• Or equilibrium or homeostasis

What model fell out of favor by the early 20th century and why?

The organic model

Natural communities do not always develop towards a single organic whole

Abiotic elements are treated merely as location or passive environment

Observed stability and unity does not persist for all locales

Talk of an ecological "superorganism" seems unscientific, metaphorical

If it didn’t fall out, then what?

If it didn’t fall out, then we would have an ethical relation. Easier to understand

System model

System model- The physics of the system as a whole

Ecosystems are the basic unit of nature on the face of Earth

Analogues in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. (Scientifically respectable)

Accommodates the importance role of abiotic elements

Dynamic networks of interactions (e.g. like a thermostat and temperature)

Example of the system model

-such as a thermostat turning on and off when reaching a certain temperature or the water cycle. The deer population stroked because we removed the predator

Community Model

Community Model- Nature is akin to a community of citizens

Sociology and economics of animal, functional ecology niches:

Producers convert water and CO2 to energy. (Photosynthesis)

Herbivores are primary consumers, carnivores are secondary/ tertiary consumers

Decomposers feed on dead organisms

Energy model

Energy Model- Ecosystems are a system of energy (e.g. a circuit)

No distinction between biotic and abiotic features

Less metaphorical and anthropomorphic than the community model

Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, all cycles driven by solar energy

In the energy model…

Treats everything the same*** it only cares about energy