Research On Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic

Industrialization, globalization and the magnified scale of human activities, along with alarge number of contaminated waste emissions, the increasing number of endangered species,the overall global climate warming leading to early flowering date and so on, which bringsdevastating changes to human life. How to deal with the ecological crisis? How to correctlyhandle with the relationship between environmental education and ecological crisis? How tocultivate ecologically well-educated citizens? To solve such problems, which need to takeboth economic, legal, technical and administrative means and the guidance of the advancedconcept, but also to do from the viewpoint of the epistemology and methodology.Based on that, this paper explores the American famous conservationist Aldo Leopoldand his land ethic, aiming at the value of land ethic in modern times and ecological wisdom.The introduction part include backgrounds and significance of the subject, research overviewat home and abroad, research ideas and methods; chapter Ⅰ explores the historicalinevitability of the land ethic formation from three angles, differently by introducing thebackgrounds forming the land ethic, theoretical sources and ecological ethic developmentbackground; chapter II introduces the main connotations and characteristics of AldoLeopold’s land ethic from of the earth ethic system and if the land ethic is rational or not,which constitutes overall theoretical construction; chapter Ⅲ analyzes the value of thetheory and of the practice about the land ethic; chapter Ⅳ explores the debates about theland ethic from different scholars; chapter Ⅴ reveals the practical significance of land ethic;The conclusion part makes an outlook about land ethic.This paper draws the conclusion that Land Ethic is an interdisciplinary theory involvingagronomy, ecology, phenology, sociology, aesthetics, providing methodological guidance forthe animals, resource management, environmental protection, especially for correctlyhandling the relationship between man and nature, which is indeed important. Aldo Leopold’sgreat contribution to mankind is not just because his classic "A Sand County Almanac" iswidespread, but his land ethic brings great changes to human values and ways of philosophythinking, which designed to enhance human beings’ sense of belonging to the nature, to stimulate the inner feelings of the non-human beings, to be ecologically well-educatedcitizens, so that environmental protection is not just verbal call, to be the practitioner of theland ethic.