Aldo Leopold's unrealized proposals to rethink economics

The writings of Aldo Leopold (1887–1948), in particular his essay “The Land Ethic” in A Sand County Almanac, constitute a milestone in the discourse on human–environment relationships. During his career, Leopold witnessed several cases of land degradation that were caused by unbridled economic activity. The objective of this article is to examine two sets of draft proposals prepared by Leopold for the purpose of rethinking economics along conservation and ecological principles. The first is a set of four draft prospectuses written during the 1930s to pursue research on “conservation economics.” The focus here was on developing economic tools to promote conservation. The second is a draft memo written in late 1947 to propose creating a position in “ecological economics” at the University of Wisconsin, with the conservationist William Vogt (1902–1968) as candidate. Leopold was inspired by the work of Vogt in analyzing human–land interaction according to ecological principles. Unfortunately, Leopold passed away in April 1948. This article concludes with a discussion of Vogt's thinking on conservation up to that time, including his 1948 book Road to Survival, to provide a sense of the foundational work that would have gone into the development of Leopold and Vogt's “ecological economics.”