Land Ethic

The land ethic invites humans to include land—soil, water, plants, and animals—in their moral calculations as they consider different courses of actions. It was developed and argued for by Aldo Leopold in The Sand County Almanac, first published in 1949.

Leopold rejects the traditional view of human dominance over nature. In its place he proposes what he titles a “land triangle.” As Leopold explains, this triangle is made up of many different layers. Each of the layers shares one single characteristic. Members of any given layer are alike in the type of food or energy that they consume. Each layer of soil, and in the layers above it, there are plants, insects, birds, reptiles, and mammals in ascending order. Humans, since they are not true carnivores, are not at the apex of the triangle. Leopold suggests that if one of the layers of the triangle were to collapse, all of the layers above it would also collapse. Thinking of nature in the form of the land triangle suggests that humans are dependent on the land and not dominant over it. Leopold calls this a community of independent parts.

Recognizing the human relationship with the land is not Leopold's end goal, however. The land ethic requires individuals to directly consider this land community as an independent consideration in their ethical dilemmas and debates. Traditionally, humans have only considered other humans in their moral calculations. A utilitarian approach asks humans to choose an option that provides the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. Other approaches to solving ethical dilemmas ask people to consider whether their actions would hurt anyone. Over time, humans have extended this type of ethical consideration to animals. Leopold's land ethic asks humans to consider the land community. In other words, a person should ask him- or herself if an action would produce the greatest good for the land community or whether the action would directly hurt the land community. This approach focuses on the ecosystem.

There is a passage in the land ethic in which he invites readers to consider whether or not an action will affect the “integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.” The action is right, he says, if it upholds these values.