Environmental Ethics

In my opinion, we are at least partially there in terms of establishing an environmental ethic. It seems as though, in accordance with Aldo's perspective, the only way humans seem to be inspired to protect land is if they are prompted by either legal or economic incentives. In this way, we seem to have made some progress as there are many more economic and legal incentives now to protect land. Many large companies, for example, are given tax deductions if they contribute to a non profit supporting conservation or balance out some of their carbon emissions with offsets in the form of protected forest land. So, in terms of incentives to protect land, it seems we have made some progress.

However, I do not think that the ethical values attached to protecting land have changed all that much. For many, the only incentive for protecting our earth is that global warming will hopefully be postponed and they can feel secure that their great-grandchildren will be able to live above water. For others, as mentioned above, land protection is purely an economic pursuit. There are certainly many people who passionately believe in protecting our earth, but no "community ethics" have been established, and to be honest, I doubt they ever will be. Our society is far too capitalist and competitive to be able to create a set of environmental ethics that large scale companies and governmental agencies could not find loopholes in. Sadly, it seems as though the only way to really protect our environment is to provide rewards or incentives for doing so.

As far as the article, I certainly agree that a set of ethics would be beneficial, but as I said above, I do not know how realistic a goal that is. I also agree that people have only ever been passionate or effective in protecting land when they see some sort of monetary value in it. Land has certainly been used, abused, and fought over throughout history, and I think it would be difficult for our society as a whole to begin again to see it as anything but a material possession or profitable investment. On the whole, however, I think that the article is a little pessimistic. I think that there is certainly a bright future for conservation and land protection, perhaps just not in the exact way he laid out.