Niger Delta Environmental Crises and the Limitations of Africanizing Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic: Towards an Earth-Eco-Socialist Model

Abstract

This chapter argues that while Aldo Leopold’s land ethic opens a new vista for understanding the complexities of human-nature interrelatedness, his view has not satisfactorily dealt with some germane aspects of environmental problems in Africa. The chapter considers some important problems in environmental degradation in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria, West Africa, which cannot be adequately addressed using Leopold’s land ethic as a theoretical foil or normative principle of action. Although Leopold correctly identifies ignorance as one of the problems of land-use, this chapter argues that the economic structure of society is a key determinant to how humans treat the natural environment. Against the view that Africanizing Leopoldian land ethic wholesomely is viable, this chapter proposes earth-eco-socialist theory as a way of improving the land ethic for contextual relevance in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. Earth-eco-socialism is defended as a more robust and serviceable ethical paradigm for confronting environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and the world by extension.