Land Ethics and Land Aesthetics - Essay Example

Land ethics endeavors to integrate moral values to human relations with the natural environment. Once human beings, perceive the environment as an intricate part of the society, they will realise that its destruction leads to the entire suffering of the human force. The Amazon may not be in America and many assume that its destruction will only affect the communities around it. However, effects of environmental destruction are adverse and universal (Callicott 38). According to Aldo Leopold, the first western environmentalist, nature, politics and economy depend on each other.

In addition, Leopold considered the community as a structure not made up of the humans only but other aspects of nature like soil, plants, animals and water (Budd 60). Land ethics focuses on fusing both land and community as parts of an ecosystem network. These two fundamental parts interact with each other, with each element possessing basic rights. The human community needs nature as much as nature needs the society. From this point of view, the land ethic is a holistic perception of ecosystems.

Environmental conservatives like Aldo Leopold made immense efforts to protect the environment and endangered species. Land ethics concerns itself with how a single organism whether protected or endangered contributes directly to the ecosystem (Callicott 56). Supporters of land ethics argue that if this single organism’s presence or absence affects the entire ecosystem, then protecting it is not an option. Therefore, land ethics regard land as an independent and essential part of the society, contrary to what many regard land as a resource for exploitation.

As a result, land ethics also focuses on the aesthetic value of land for preservation of a quality and productive natural environment. Until the early 18th century, aesthetics were a term associated mostly with visual arts such fashion and design and fine art. Texture, colour, touch, smell and taste are all aspects that make up aesthetics. Land aesthetics deals with how human beings perceive value and appreciate their natural ecosystem (Budd 78). When it comes to nature environment, aesthetics comprises of both manmade and natural environments.

Land aesthetics aims at correct planning and preservation of quality ecosystems both natural and manmade. Manmade environment include game parks and reserves, dams, green houses and even industries. While natural environment comprises of lakes, rivers, deserts, plains and mountains. Land ethics and aesthetics go hand in hand since they both aim at conservation and preservation of a quality environment for a better future (Callicott 78). Land aesthetic and the land conservation are the two principal subjects of evolutionary and ecological theory.

Together they symbolize a consistent environmental axiology (Zimmerman 40). An ecosystem refers to the combination of weather, soil, water, air, plants and animals of a place that create a chain of dependency among these elements. In his book “Sand County Almanac”, Aldo Leopold states that human beings should maintain the dependency chain in an ecosystem to avoid future calamities. This is achievable only when human communities change their mentality and begin perceiving land as part of the society.

As the expansion of homes, industries, infrastructure and social amenities, progresses, it is critical to reduce the impacts they have on