The Mercenary Co-Existence: Human or Not

Marisa Calistro

PHIL 2300
 Human kind is well known for taking many things for granted out of their own

idea of self-righteousness. We think that we deserve the things that enter our

environment and we take and take and take. When there is none left, then what do we

do? We move on to the next closest source that we can continually take from. Aldo

Leopold discusses thoroughly about different types of ethics, but none stand of the most

importance as the land ethic. Muirs preservation ethic, created by John Muir, firmly

believed that the land was to be preserved with out man meandering through the

environment. This is where our National Parks came from, and in these parks are where

people are more than welcome to come and visit, but cannot reside within those parks

permanently to cultivate the land. Muir saw mans feet as dangerous, as it trampled and

destroyed the land it walked upon because of the heavy desire for resources. On the other

side of the coin, there was Gifford Pinchots idea of conservation ethic where he stated

man was to belong within their environment as long as mankind and nature could co-exist

equally happy. Pinchots ethic relied on people having a deep understanding on

conservation by caring for the land properly. Leopolds ethic however states that humans

and nature need to live as a community, all together as one and not as individuals. This

large community is to include mankind, animals, plants, soil, water; the land and

everything that resides upon it. Leopolds most noted points of his ethic is that

individuals in the community help everyone in the community to expand and that the land

is not to be seen as a economic problem. However, it becomes largely complex that the

land is both environmental and economic, and they could not be separated so easily. We

can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, and understand, love, or

otherwise have faith in. (Aldo Leopold, The Land Pyramid, pg. 214) In this quote said
by Leopold, it is understood by him that only those who can have a deep connection and

passion to preserve and conserve the land will do their part in the community so we all

can co-exist happily. Unfortunately, there has been no change in how mankind treats the

land. There have been more preservation/conservation groups created to protect and help

rejuvenate the land now, but under the thumb of the government, there is only so much

they can do. This is why Leopolds ethic stands above the rest in logic, but it takes a

tremendous amount of passion in every person to co-exist with the communal

environment we share.

Nature is beautiful and amazing in the way it survives in every different land and

climates. I love nature, and although I am not the most outgoing person to go out and

join a conservation group, I do my best to respect the land and its boundaries. My own

philosophy on conservation is that you can use what you need from the land, but return

the same amount, or more, back to the environment; you take a tree, you plant a seed. I

have an especially deep connection towards animals and love how beautiful they are in

how they look, how they adapt, and how they survive. I will admit, when a population

grows out of control, there should be something done to constrain increasing numbers for

a period of time. Hunting is done this way, an example being populations of deer

growing to increasingly large sizes that special permits to hunt does can be issued at

times. There are no permits on hunting people of course, but there are protected lands to

keep mankinds population out of certain areas to conserve other biotic beings, such

places being Yellowstone National Park or Yosemite National Park.

When you are on National Parks lands, you are to follow guidelines and rules to

respect everyone in the community. Yet, this should be a practice that humans should
follow without needing a park ranger barking up their ear about being respectful. To

practice this, you need to follow this famous phrase that Im sure youve heard of more

than once: Treat others as you wanted to be treated. Thats respect, and that is how you

should be like towards others in the community, based on the land ethic. The role of

people is not to conquer nature, but to be well-natured citizens. If you shoot off

fireworks during the summer in dry grassland or forests for kicks and giggles, despite

obvious warnings and punishments, would you want to be treated that way? That would

be like a person shooting off a firearm in a busy public setting. You never know who you

are going to leave without a home, harm, or even kill when you do things out of

disrespect and self-indulgent. Sadly, these events do occur in often enough around the

world and the aftermath is devastating to not only the environment, but the people as

well.

Respecting people in your community should be a given. However, our land-

relation is still difficult to explain as the land is still seen very economic today. There are

much more conservation groups that are out there to help protect the land, but as I have

stated before, they are under the control of the government. Economics are also under

the control of the government, along with mankind expanding and pushing it along. As

there are more and more people everyday in the world, it pushes up and need for more

resources. Today, economy is at a high demand for many resources from the

environment, an example being the need for more water in the drier states in the U.S.

States such as California and Nevada were at a desperate need for water not only for

human use, but also for using on crops that were dying out in recent heat waves over the

summer season. It is a privilege to use more water sources from aquifers, but it should
not be expected from the environment to obligate its resource. By doing this, we dry out

the land even more as we demand more water for drinking, showering, cleaning,

swimming, and watering crops.

Living as a community, we should gain a sense of what everything needs; not

want. It also means we should sense what nonhuman things need and not want. In our

community, it means that we need to understand what we can do to help improve the

living circumstances of someone else in our community. 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. (Aldo Leopold, The Outlook, pg. 224) This is only partially true, as

there are implications that I can see. There has to be a moment when you have to do

what is right for you, and not necessarily the community. You may call it egotistical, but

the biotic community would not second think of doing the same. Imagined if you can

into a new community, seeking a new home for shelter. However, when you get there,

you can only be told that there are no more homes in this area for you because we are

protecting the natural beauty of the tree around us. Is it right for the land ethic

community to leave someone like you who as integrity, stability, and beauty in this

community as well? There has to be a balance in order to co-exist, and as long as you

give back from where and what you used, there is no wrong.

It is much more motivating to look upon the beauty of things, no matter what

shape or size, no matter alive or not. My aesthetics stand above my ethics more often

than not, and its not necessarily the best. Leaving out my duty (ethics) can create

disorder in my lifestyle as I lose out on daily matters that I need to attend to, such as work

and school. I value my aesthetics because I when I look upon someone or something, my
mind wandering into imagination and creativity. I find pleasure in the aesthetics around

me in my life, reducing my stress and increasing my compassion for many things. In my

land ethic, it emanates from within my soul. I hold this idea of a community close, non-

human or human. My self-interest finds enjoyment from interacting within my

community from my friends and family to the forests and animals that surround me.

Aldo Leopolds Land Ethic was riveting and opened my eyes towards how I

truly feel about this community around me. I had never heard of this ethic, but learned

this is how I want human and non-human things to interact with each other. There should

be a passion towards nature, a love, a respect, an admiration to nature like Leopold said.

However, I do disagree with his holding the integrity of the biotic community higher than

all individuals. There does have to be some degree of teamwork within a community, but

there are times where you need to put yourself above the community for survival. To

survive however, we must co-exist as a community and respect and love each other like

family to overcome the hardships of life.

 Resources Cited:

1. The Land Ethic, Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, Published 1949

2. The Land Ethic, The Aldo Leopold Foundation, The Leopold Legacy, accessed

on July 30, 2017, http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/landethic.shtml

3. Wording Matters: Conservation vs. Preservation, Amy Freitag, Southern Fried

Science, published November 27 2011, accessed on July 30, 2017,

http://www.southernfriedscience.com/wording-matters-conservation-vs-

preservation/