Using the evolutionary-ecological land ethic to frame environmental science courses

• In Event: Meanings and Conceptions of Environmental Education

Abstract

Environmental science courses should be rooted in Aldo Leopold’s evolutionary-ecological land ethic, in order for students to understand the complex effects of human impact on ecological systems. This paper describes a method called Ecology Disrupted to bring Leopold’s land ethic to environmental science courses by focusing discussion of environmental issues on disrupted ecological function. By framing environmental issues as the result of human actions that disrupt normal ecological function, it unlocks the evolutionary-ecological complexity that connects everyday actions to environmental issues. If environmental science courses were framed as explorations of how people disrupt evolutionary systems, students could focus on human connections to ecosystems and how to alter behaviors in order to sustain the ecological communities of which we are members.

Author

• Yael Wyner, City College of New York - CUNY