Aldo Leopold Thinking Like A Mountain Analysis

Although Leopold’s love of great expanses of wilderness is readily apparent, his book does not cry out in defense of particular tracts of land about to go under the axe or plow, but rather deals with the minutiae, the details, of often unnoticed plants and animals, all the little things that, in our ignorance, we have left out of our managed acreages but which must be present to add up to balanced ecosystems and a sense of quality and wholeness in the landscape.

Rachel Carson is a noted biologist who studies biology, a branch of science addressing living organisms, yet she has written a book called Silent Spring to speak about the harmful effects of pesticides on nature. Carson doesn’t write about birds’ genetic and physical makeup, the role of them in the animal food chain, or even how to identify their unbelievable bird songs, yet strongly attests the fight for a well developed environment containing birds, humans, and insects is just and necessary. To Carson, the war for a natural environment is instantly essential for holding on to her true love for the study of biology. Thus Carson claims that whether it be a direct hit towards birds or an indirect hit towards humans and wildlife, farmers need to understand the effects and abandon the usage of pesticides in order to save the environment by appealing to officials, farmers, and Americans in her 1962 book, Silent Spring. She positions her defense by using rhetorical devices such as rhetorical questioning to establish logos, juxtaposing ideas, and using connotative and denotative diction.

The first remark Aldo Leopold made that genuinely caught my attention was during February when Leopold was talking about the spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. Leopold discusses the work put into heating a house in the middle of winter. The cutting, splitting, hauling, and piling of oak would make people realize the amount of work that goes into the comfort of a warm house while most people sit next to a radiator and pay no attention to where the heat comes from. Nevertheless, what the oak seedlings would have conquered in order to become a tree. The oak tree has endured centuries of history before it could become a source of heat for a home. The general population does not understand how much effort and time goes

“Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land… harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left” (Pg 189). In less than three sentences, to me this quote summarizes everything that Leopold is trying to say in his novel. Metaphorically, the quote is talking about two friends. In regards to the novel, Leopold is saying that humanity cannot take and use the lands resources without making a conscious effort to replenish them. The non-fiction novel A Sand County Almanac written by Aldo Leopold characterizes the importance in loving, caring and understanding our environment, land and ecosystems that surround us.

If everyone thought this way our wildlife, animals, nature, and environment would be in better the way you would want them to be treated. This saying is simply stating to people love to have nice things and when we get them we like to keep it that way. So in relation to Leopold we have a nice beautiful environment in which we should keep it that way. Think of our environment as a condition than what it is now. Aldo Leopold was right when he said “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and the beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”(Sand CountyAlmanac, pg. 224-225). It is important for people to reach and follow the values of Leopold explaining that beauty is not just scenery, stability does not mean unchanging for change is essential to nature and the natural world and integrity is wholeness, having all the parts. These three simple values will change our perspective of the

We capture, contain, and control the very wildness of these animals, we so admire them for. We decorate a large bucket of water, or a box of bars to resemble a shallow shadow of the wilderness they should be in. These animals held captive in collective groups as a means to entertain us. We are trading the wonder of nature, seen in it’s own wilderness area for animal showmanship and entertainment. Losing the remarkable sensations of hope and renewal we experience, as we stand in a wilderness land, quietly observing animals and nature in the wildly beautiful and raw lands. The absence of our own lack of realization that nature and the wild places we call the wilderness are under attack. They are in danger of being beyond repair. It overwhelms the senses, and is not to be tolerated.

In the pieces, “Thinking like a mountain” by Leopold and “Big mac and Tropical forests,” by Skinner both demonstrate a clear message through their writings. Although Leopold used strong points to get his message across, Skinner grabs his audience's attention by using factual evidence instead of a personal experience. In Leopold's “Thinking like a mountain” the author discusses a big issue today involving wildlife and deforestation, trying to convince his audience about how to realize the issue at hand. On the other hand, Skinner’s “ Big mac and Tropical forests” talks about how in today’s day and age the economy is more focused on making money from putting in unnecessary fast food chains in the spots of Tropical forests. Even though these writings are very different they still

Extinct species should not be brought back into existence because the idea of de-extinction diverts attention and funding from protecting many endangered species that can still thrive in their environment. According to text 3, lines 7-10, “De-extinction intends to resurrect single, charismatic species, yet millions of species are at risk of extinction. De-extinction can only be an infinitesimal part of solving the crisis that now sees species of animals ... going extinct at a thousand times their natural rates”. Another piece of evidence is displayed in Text 4, lines 3-8, “It is much more sensible to put all the limited resources for science and

John Wiens, an evolutionary biologist at Stony Brook University in New York says, “There is a terrible urgency to saving threatened species and habitats.” He continues in saying “As far as I can see, there is little urgency for bringing back extinct ones. Why invest millions of dollars in bring a handful of species back from the dead, when there are millions still waiting to be discovered, described, and protected?” This is a problem for many scientists and Paul R. Ehrlich states in his article, The Case of De- Extinction:It is a Fascinating but Dumb Idea, says that “It is much more sensible to put all the limited resources for science and conservation into preventing extinctions, by tackling the causes of demise….” This is proving that de-extinction is a bad idea because of the facts that it is more important to put money and research into conservation efforts. By focusing on de-extinction. We are tearing away our focus on these efforts and putting it into something that may or may not work. Something never tested that could possibly hurt not help the environment. Paul R Ehrlich also states that “De-extinction seems far- fetched, financially problematic, and extremely unlikely to succeed.” With de- extinction hindering conservation efforts and being unlikely to succeed it is clear that we should not even attempt de-extinction. However hindering conservation efforts is only one way that de-extinction is a bad

Within Aldo Leopold’s Thinking Like a Mountain and Annie Dillard’s Living Like a Weasel there is a communal theme, which incorporates the conflict between people and nature. Throughout Dillard’s piece, she uses comparisons between the life of humans and the life of a wild weasel while applying the theme of freedom of choice. After an unexpected encounter with a weasel, Dillard concludes that humans can learn from the wild freedom of weasel. She states, “...I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive” (Dillard 8). In Aldo Leopold’s writing, his overall motive is to communicate to the reader that we humans must not destroy the wilderness, as

These essays are delights and dilemmas of one who cannot” (xvii). This quote is the first line of the book. His saying there’s two types of people and he says which he is. Telling us he is of the ones who cannot live without wild things we can assume this viewpoint will be present throughout the book. Leopold’s 120-acre farm was, you could say, “farmed-out.” Abandoned years before Leopold because of the poor soil from which the "sand counties" took their nickname. To his farm and the rest of the “sand counties Leopold says, "that we try to rebuild, with shovel and axe, what we are losing

Aldo Leopold laid the foundation for environmental awareness decades ahead of a “ecological conscience” (257). There have many pleas to reconnect humanity with nature since the release of Leopold’s cherished book. Intuition and reason tell us that living in harmony with our world is more than idealistic—the future of our planet depends on it. The desire for harmony is not new one. Humans have long time sought to live in peace. It is genuine feelings of love and

“The Land Ethic” written by Aldo Leopold was critiqued by J. Baird Callicott. “The Land Ethic” in short explained the idea that humans are not superior to animals or species on earth, but humans should live on earth as simple members. (Leopold, 2013) Callicott found three things that lead to the confusion, contempt, and contempt of Leopold’s writings.

When we are emotionally triggered our individual “conditioned responses” can vary widely from from person to person and depending on the situation we are dealing with.

Bill Freedmen, author of “Endangered Species—Human Causes Of Extinction and Endangerment” notes, “scientists approximate that present extinction rates are 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the average natural extinction rate.” These distressing numbers should be acted upon to save the endangered species and avoid the catastrophic change to this planet if these species were to become extinct. In order to produce change, people need to recognize that habitat loss, climate change, and poaching are all factors in why our animal species are going extinct.