A Sand County Almanac is a classic of conservation philosophy. Its author, Aldo Leopold, taught wildlife management at Madison, Wisconsin, and bought a few acres of worn-out prairie as a weekend retreat.
A Sand County Almanac is the story of Leopold’s restoration of this patch of land, now owned and preserved by the Leopold Foundation.
Title: A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
Author(s): Aldo Leopold
Illustrated by CHARLES W. SCHWARTZ
(You will need to pay ~$6 for access to the book on Perusall.)
The book includes several eco-philosophical essays such as "The Land Ethic," which is one of the best-known and most influential statements of environmental ethics ever written.
Socrates observed that a crucial requirement to live a life worth living was to "know thyself."
In this Assessment, you will see how Aldo Leopold seems to have worked towards self-knowledge by conducting an on-going conversation with himself while walking around his landscape and making detailed observations of the ecological constituents and processes on which we depend.
This course presents the opportunity to do something similar. What wondrous discoveries await us as we direct our observational acumen to our ecological surroundings. Be patient with yourself in letting all your senses be informed by the subtle influences of our environmental conditions. These are, after all, the very conditions of your own possibility. We are learning about what makes it possible for us to be participants in this thing we call "life."
The purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about the ethical values and principles that are necessary to inspire and guide environmental stewardship.
We live in what Paul Crutzen has called "The Anthropocene Era." Human impacts on the global environment are quite simply unsustainable.
If our impacts are unsustainable, then so are we.
We are at a point where deliberate action to elongate our possibilities and our future is necessary.
This will require much more than new technologies, changed economic measuring sticks, and regulatory policy. (In fact, even these presume the ethical principles necessary to take action to carry them forth.)
Sustainability was defined in the UNEP’s "Our Common Future" Report in 1988 as,
"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:
- the concept of ‘needs’, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
- the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs."
The foundation of sustainability is, therefore, ethical concern. It requires that we value present and future generations of our species and others. Facts and evidence are vital but will mean little if we do not act on them.
This assessment requires that you reflect on and write about Leopold’s ideas in your modern context. In your reflection, you should interpolate Leopold’s ideas with your experiences, examples and other ideas you have learned. You are encouraged to draw connections with things you have experienced, read, heard and watched (including relevant literature, podcasts, music, documentaries, etc.). Support your reflections and connections with independent verification and evidence (with citations where possible). How do Leopold’s ideas resonate with modern environmental issues and concerns? Based on your experience and understanding of current sustainability challenges, how might Leopold’s ideas be applied or updated? What influence might they have on your own perspective and practices? How might they contribute to sustainability?
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