leopold

Aldo Leopold, from Sand County Almanac, in May et al., Applied Ethics, pp. 120-131.

Thesis: Rights should be extended beyond humans to include animals and land.

Main supporting points:

Land (soils, waters, plants, and animals) must be regarded as more than mere property.

Some people in the past have been reduced to property but today possess rights.

The evolution of ethics--from the Decalogue, to the Golden Rule, and to democracy--moves toward greater social cooperation.

Reducing land to mere property is antisocial, non-cooperative conduct.

Land is a mechanism that consists of a complex series of food links or food chains.

An appropriate role for humans as part of the biotic community is to conserve the various species in the land pyramid.

Humans have obligations that correspond to the rights of the land and the various species.