Aldo Leopold: The Earth Doesn’t Belong to Us, We Belong to It
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) was an American wildlife biologist and conservationist who was a major influence on the development of modern environmental ethics. He is perhaps most well known for his nature writing and in particular the best-selling book A Sand County Almanac published posthumously in 1949. Leopold was a professor at the University of Wisconsin, the founder of the science of wildlife management, and an advocate for preserving the pristineness of the American West.
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
Source: A Sand County Almanac (1949), via Wikiquote
