Ethical Issues In Land Ethic

In the last two centuries, scientific innovations have progressed exponentially. Engineers have taken advantage of the environment like never before. Due to engineering and science, more food is being produced with less land, and more people have access to clean water and electricity. These innovations have improved everyday living standards and have allowed for major population growth around the world. With engineering advancements, people are achieving what seemed impossible years ago, but now scientists have discovered a new problem.In recent years, scientists have found that society's current way of life is unsustainable. This issue and others like it have created a basis for the environmental responsibilities an engineer must uphold and

In Land Ethic, Aldo Leopold writes that engineers must learn how nature works. Nature is one organism, and all the pieces work together. Every part has a purpose, no part can be removed. If our actions cause an effect on the ecosystem, then more changes in the ecosystem will result due to the imbalance caused. Our surrounding environment is the biggest supplier of uncalculated variables that engineers have to take into account. When the environment is involved, it is almost impossible to predict all the possibilities. If these environmental variables are not taken into consideration, there is a much greater chance that people and the environment can be harmed. Yucca Mountain is a great example of an engineering ethical issue involving nature. In the 1990’s, the U.S. government and nuclear companies were looking to build a permanent nuclear depository. The proposed site of the nuclear depository was under Yucca Mountain, which is a few miles outside of Las Vegas,Nevada. A permanent nuclear depository had never been attempted before, so scientist had to start from scratch and come up with a plan to hold highly hazardous nuclear waste. No one knew whether a permanent depository would be safe. It was discovered that nuclear companies were planning to start a campaign, in hopes of getting the people of Las Vegas to support the nuclear site. Moral

Leopold explains that it is impossible to do this with economic based land ethic, because most things in nature do not have economic value and therefore do not get protected. Leopold brings up examples about how there are 22,000 plants and animals in Wisconsin and probably less than five percent can be used economically (Leopold, 1948). All of the plants and animals have a purpose in the community, so it hurts the health of the ecosystem that these plants and animals are not cared for equally. Leopold goes on to say that society needs more than just government regulations on land use in order to take care of it. He uses the example of Wisconsin Legislature passing the Soil Conservation District Law in 1937 (Leopold, 1948). Leopold praises the law because it supports land conservation, but is not working at full strength since the farmers only think in economic land based ethic. The farmers are following the law, but are only using the land conservation processes that are economically beneficial to them. Engineers must not only look at nature as a mechanism, but also as a living organism. Many times people do unethical environmental acts because they do not see the environment as a living body, but rather a mechanism for their economic gain (Leopold,