Ecosystem Management: The Human Dimension

Establishing an environmental ethic is of utmost concern to the human species to better comprehend our place in the world and our potentials for the future. In doing so, we must extend our thinking of rights and responsibilities. I believe we must incorporate not only a temporal component, but also a spatial understanding of the world as an organic biotic community and how consumption is a part of the natural order. Aldo Leopold believes that conservation ethics must be rooted in a determination: "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." I would like to start with Leopold's statement, and further explore how the definitions of integrity, stability and beauty can be better understood given three corollary's:

1. All organic entities must consume to survive – it is not only a right, but a responsibility

2. There are limited resources to be consumed by organic entities on the planet

3. The human species has the ability, through rational thought, to conserve ever-depleting resources

A re-examination of the primary consumption entities of today are not even organic. They are mechanical devices, driven by a materialistic ethic, meant to transform energy into types that our species can then consume. Cars consume oil, power plants consume coal, and our packaging consumes trees. Not to mention all of the conversions directly to unusable energy, such as plastics or even the processes of material production itself. Of course, by removing the potential energy base for other organic entities, this can lead to instability in the organic community as a whole. Therefore, we must not ask too much of nature and conserve the limited resources of the life giving Earth.

Leopold, Aldo. 1937. Teaching wildlife conservation in public schools. Transactions of

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Approximate Word count = 1753
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)