At first when thinking about the term land ethic, I thought of a person being ethical to the land. Maybe not cutting down as many trees, conserving a few more resources, or something simple like that. But as I began to read further into Leopold’s article, I realized that land ethic is much more than that. Leopold describes the basic idea of land ethic, as being "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." To elaborate on this, for an individual to have land ethic, that person must care more about the land (referred to as the biotic community throughout the article), than just preserving it a little bit. People need to be more dedicated to preserving our environment, in a more ethical way.
Within the reading there was one line that stood out to me more than the rest. “…we still slip two steps backward for each forward stride”. To me, this is one of the truest statements throughout the entire article. I thought about this statement in comparison to my life and the lives of people that I know. For example, when I moved to FGCU as a freshman, I was gung ho about recycling, because the school made it so easy. There were recycling centers everywhere, so of course I would recycle. (That was my forward stride). This summer, when I moved into an apartment with different people, in a different area of the state at a different school where recycling centers were not offered, I have barely recycled at all. It is not that I have no intentions to do so, it is just that it is not as easily accessible to me, so it makes it harder for me to want to do it. (My two steps back). When I return to FGCU in the fall, I am positive that I will begin recycling again (thus starting the cycle over again). I know that I am not the only person who lives this way. I also know that this isn’t how I should be living, but I am living and learning!
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