Like a Balanced Rock: Aldo Leopold, Val Plumwood and turbid ecology

Leopold’s proposals, based on ethical-philosophical values and not merely utilitarian and economistic ones, certainly represent an important turning point in the direction of a non-extractivist vision of natural resources. Likewise, the acknowledgment of the belonging of human life to “nature” from which it started out has contributed to the development of contemporary ecological awareness. However, from an ecofeminist, antispeciesist, and ethical-political perspective, it cannot be ignored that his theories today present evident limitations that are mirrored in the differences between ecofeminist approaches and those of deep ecology influenced by Leopold. My reflections are part of a debate that has involved several ecofeminist theorists, and by addressing the issue they intertwine with those of another ecofeminist, Val Plumwood, with a view to continuing the discourse on predation opened by the latter and giving it a further twist.