“The Land Ethic” by A. Leopold
People are responsible for maintaining the health of the earth. Life depends on it, not only to their future generations, but also all the living creatures that inhabit the planet. “Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our attempt to understand and preserve this capacity.”(Callicot, 1987) The man needs to radically revise his attitude towards nature. He should turn from the conqueror into the "”citizen of the biosphere”, for whom the land is no longer either slave or servant. One has to realize the fact that the Earth is a collective body, part of which is the man himself. These parts of the body not only compete but also cooperate, collaborate. Man, as a superior being on this planet that is able to regulate the processes of competition and cooperation, but he has no right to abolish them. Wildlife should be a laboratory for a person to study the health of the earth. This science of the health of the land is being formed. Smultaneously with this science, land ethic is appearing. It “extends the community, to include the soil, water, plants and animals [collectively we call it] the earth.” (Leoppold, 1987) We need to understand that everything in a nature is good, whether we realize it or not. All beings, either living or non-living (in the ordinary sense) have the right to existence and self-realization.
Aldo Leopold offers a concept of community that is part of the land ethic. Earth seemed to him a kind of "collective body". It feeds people and shape their culture It will not be radical. Its creator is well aware that the "land ethic of course can not prevent the alteration, management, and use of these" resources ", but it does affirm their right to continued existence ... in the state of nature." Moreover, it calls for a "militant minority of citizens supporters of wildlife conservation" to be alert and ready for action throughout the country. (Leopold, 1987) This appeal was heard by the representatives of the radical left movements decades later. Great influence on the formation of a radical egalitarian ideas in environmental thought has the same philosophy of postmodernism. And the radical environmentalists and postmodernists see the connection between the oppression of man by man and the oppression of human nature.
According to A. Leopold, environmental ethics is an extremely important factor in the modern environmental movement, as it changes the role of a man and transforms a man from barbarian into an equivalent member of a harmonious community of nature. This community is the energy that “jet across the range of soils, plants and animals.” Aldo Leopold sees Earth as a geobiocentral magical community. This ethical statement about the Earth is a kind of precursor to change man's attitude to nature. A man needs only to feel like a member of the community, which contains all the earthly world. “Land ethic simply expands the boundaries of the community which now includes soil, water, …