Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 - April 21, 1948) was a United States ecologist, forester, and environmentalist.

Social conscience

Leopold's classic identified the need for education as necessary prior to rules being written and supported by the community. Leopold noted that, interestingly enough, various community obligations other than land-use ethics rose above economic self-interest and did indeed gain community support. This fact brought him to the conclusion that obligations have no meaning without conscience, and the problem we face is the extension of the social conscience from people to land. At the time he was writing, he believed that, without benefit of philosophy and religion, conservation had been minimized.

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