Is a Land Ethic Enough?

In his work, The Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold asserts that we currently do not have and thus need a "land ethic"- an ethic dealing with the relationship between human beings and the land (which is meant to include all biotic and abiotic factors within our environment). He argues that as of right now, we only regard the land (our environment) in terms of its instrumental value to us and that we do not acknowledge its intrinsic value, or the value it possesses in and of itself. Leopold's proposed land ethic implies that humans are a part of a larger biotic community and that we are in no way superior to or deserving of higher moral consideration than any other member of this community.
Although I do agree that it could certainly benefit and help improve the condition of the environment for more human beings to possess ethical attitudes towards other species and the land in general, Leopold does not adequately explain in this excerpt of his work how a land ethic could actually be implemented in human societies and how exactly this would solve our current ecological crisis. It would be difficult if not impossible to change the attitudes of many individuals in our society, especially in regard to the environment, which is viewed by many people as merely a reserve of natural resources with only instrumental, economic value and no inherent worth. Despite the obvious fact that our environment is being damaged due to anthropogenic activities, many people still do not believe that the land, or the environment, deserves any kind of moral consideration or further protection.
Even if somehow Leopold managed to persuade every human being to change his/her attitude toward the environment and everyone thus possessed a land ethic, this would not necessarily lead to the improvement of the condition of our environment. While changing our attitudes towards nature is certainly important in provoking beneficial change, we also must take action to make changes happen. Although Leopold does mention that implementation of solutions to our environmental problems is a necessity, he does not specifically discuss the importance of or need for any kind of improvement in current legislation (e.g., the Endangered Species Act) for the purpose of protecting the integrity of our environment and preventing further damage from being done.