land

When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.

-Aldo Leopold 

Land Ethic

Aldo Leopold's "The Land Ethic" has been extremely influential in my way of thinking about and studying the environment. Leopold's radical ideas of humans taking responsibility for the land and giving the land respect just the same as we would members of a community is, what I think, a pivotal thought in environmental thinking. Leopold thought that we must no longer use the environment and our ecosystems simply as a resource that has economic value, but instead view the environment with the same respect we would give an individual, "a member of a community of interdependent parts." I think that "The Land Ethic" gives a crucial account on how humans should treat the land. I think that respect, cooperation, and mutual benefits are the only way the humans will learn how and why conservation is so important. Conservation must be a priority and humans will see this if they commit to a land ethic of some sort.

Meaning of Obligations

After the many readings we've done in our class about whether animals have rights or moral standing or value I have come to the conclusion that animals to have inherent value. I think that because animals have inherent value and could have a good life or a bad life depending on how they are treated, humans have an obligation to giving animals the best life possible. What does it mean to have obligations to animals? I think that it means that if we are going to continue eating animals and testing on animals there needs to be a certain level of dignity upheld in these types of situations. For example, keeping animals in CAFOs is not treating them with the correct level of dignity. Keeping chickens on a farm in a coop and letting them have enough space to run around and establish pecking orders and not putting them through unnecessary pain in their life is giving them the dignity they should have. I don't think that we need to stop eating meat or stop testing on animals but I think that there needs to be a systematic change in the way we treat the animals that are going to end up on our plates or testing the products that we use.