An Exploration On Leopold’s Land Ethic In A Sand County Almanac

Aldo Leopold is one of the most well-known scientists and environment protectionists with international reputation. He is also a literary master with great attainments. A Sand County Almanac, known as the bible of environment protection, is Leopold’s most outstanding masterpiece. It combines philosophy, ethic and ecology. The land ethic brought up by Leopold in this book helps to improve readers’ecological consciousness, promote the development of environment protection movement and the formulation of environment protection laws and policies. Being divided into four parts, this thesis will conduct a preliminary exploration on the land ethic in A Sand County Almanac through intensive reading.When introspecting the relationship between human beings and nature, Leopold came up with the land ethic. He tried to enhance people’s understanding of land on the basis of illustrating the land’s ecological functions, in order to stir people’s love and respect for the land community. He thinks the land community includes not only soils, but also waters, plants and animals. What’s more, he considers a thing is right only when it preserves the biotic community’s integrity, stability and beauty; otherwise, it is wrong. He points out that only by observing the land ethic will Homo sapiens change their role of the land-community conqueror to plain member and citizen of it.Leopold keeps perfecting his thoughts through a series of working practice; his transformation from preservation to conservation has an important impact in both America and the whole world. In China, the construction of ecological civilization has been put on the high agenda of socialist construction; therefore, the land ethic will also give inspiration for Chinese people.