Tragedy of the Commons The tragedy of the commons is a very unfortunate and very real thing. It occurs whenever everyone takes a little bit of a limited resource repeatedly. The result of this is that all the resources are gone. In The Lorax, the Once-ler cuts down all the truffula trees in the area to make thneeds (The Lorax). When all the trees are gone, the business shuts down and all the animals are forced to leave (The Lorax). The factories polluted the air and made the area unsafe to live in (The Lorax). This is a perfect example of a tragedy of the commons. A similar event happened in Easter Island. Tribes started inhabiting the area and began using the trees to build houses and eat food from them (Easter Island). Eventually all the trees are gone, and the society resorted to cannibalism and war because there was no food (Easter Island). Garrett Hardin states in his essay that maximimizing population does not maximize goods (Hardin). In this essay, both tragedies of the commons will be compared and will be examined to see how they could have been prevented. The first point of comparison is how it happened. In The Lorax, the Once-ler got greedy and cut down all the trees in a very short period of time (The …show more content…
While Garrett Hardin says there is no technical solution to the population problem, there are ways to delay overpopulation (Hardin). This was a major problem in Easter Island. There were tribes that populated that small island (Easter Island). This was one of the reasons all the trees got cut down. They had to cut the trees down to get food for all the people that were there (Easter Island). Easter Island was not fit to support that many people, so all the trees got cut down and the society went to turmoil (Easter Island). This was also a problem in The Lorax. There were so many people wanting thneeds that they had to cut down all the trees. When they were gone, there was no more business (The
can actually leave more space for new trees. Also, cutting down trees gives more multiple resources to contribute for our needs. One tree can produce many things to help we humans and cutting them down can be more of a benefit than a disadvantage. Trees can be very beneficial and be used as many resources through education and basically everyday life. The Truax has a more realistic view on the environment and how we are using it.
d. Both stories indicate that the ecological footprint of people is greater than the biological capacity for resource renewal. The Lorax shows that Once-ler only cared about his own benefits without thinking about the harm he gives to the resources that are not renewable. The Lorax presents that the society does not believe in sustainable practices and overconsumes the resources. To live sustainably, the society should rely on source of energy that can be replenished, use matter, control population growth and depend on local biodiversity. Like the Lorax, the Truax also does not indicate practicing sustainability. It presents the occurring deforestation and how people get maximum benefits from it. In comparison to Once-ler, Truax understands
In, The Population Bomb by, Paul R Ehrlich, he explains the problem of population increase, and how there are people everywhere! The feeling of feeling over populated. He talks about how if there are more people then there is more food that needs to be produced then ate. He explains on the rich people becoming wealthier and the poor are going to be even poorer and there is going to be a starvation. Population is doubling every year and how our energy is turning into
Garret Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” is an article that identifies the nation’s current problems and predicaments that can’t be resolved through the use of technical solutions. Hardin’s work heavily focuses on overpopulation, a prominent and unceasing issue that significantly distorts and affects the stability of the Earth and the abundance of the planet’s resources. In his article, he mentioned some reasonable and important solutions to overpopulation, but he also explained its downside and how the said solutions may not be ideal and practical. “Tragedy of the Commons” revealed that the human population will continue to flourish and how it will be greatly detrimental to our society unless individuals get the education that they need and
Hardin states that throughout most of history there's been no need for concern about population control. Nature would come along with epidemic diseases and take care of the matter for us. Disease has been the primary population controller in the past. Because widespread disease and famine no longer exist, we have to find other means to stop population increases (Spencer 1992, pp.61-2).
In his 1968 essay, The Tragedy of the Commons, Garret Hardin addresses the problem with overpopulation and it’s eventual toll on our planet’s resources in a scenario where the individual interest clashes with the collective interest. Self-interest only serves the good of an individual while collective interest is meant to serve the good of everyone in the society. In his essay, he describes overpopulation as a tragedy of the commons because as population grows exponentially, resources only grow statically, and this will result in the depletion of our resources. When a resourc...
“The Lorax reflects the era in 1971 in which the book was written. During that time, the United States was entangled in environmental issues left over from the 1960s. The deforestation of the Pacific Northwest was chief among them; logging companies were cutting down trees at alarming rates. The logging industry were not happy about The Lorax and as a result the book was banned from many schools and libraries near thriving timber communities. Timber industry groups even sponsored a rebuttal book, called The Truax, which helped kids understand the necessity of harvesting timber (Ayers)”.
In 1986, Garrett Hardin wrote an article about the population problem we have in our current world, and presented it to a big highly educated audience. He basically told them about the population problem we are currently going through in specific terms. First, he studied the relation of our current population to our current resources, and realized that our population should be brought under control because of the limited amount of resources we have. He then examined the actions that have caused population to increase uncontrollably.
Hardin uses the example of a farmer never letting too many cattle into his pasture. The farmer knows the maximum capacity of his pasture and if he exceeds that amount tragedies can occur such as erosion and weeds. This farmer does not suffer as much as a farmer who uses his pasture as a commons, letting it overload. Hardin is saying the United States should be more like the selfish farmer in regards to immigration. Some everyday commons Hardin uses as examples are air, water, and land. As our population increases our air is becoming more polluted, oceans are becoming unlivable environments, and resources are becoming scarce. We give these commons to everyone, not considering the consequences of doing
According to Hardin, freedom is the cause of tragedy of commons. There is no technical solution to solve it. The only solution is to alter human’s principles. The article by Hardin focused on the population growth. Overpopulation is an example of tragedy of commons. Because the world is finite, one is unable to maximize goods and population at the same time. Hardin then propose that the only solution is to limit breeding. “Common system from breeding must be abandoned”
Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Overpopulation has become a drastic issue, for no one knows how many people the earth
Ostrom (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge University Press.
‘The Tragedy of the Commons’ deals with the over growing population and suggests a solution in a unique prospect. Undeniably, science and technology is often suggested as a solution to the problem (by majority of the published journal). However, Hardin believes that there is no technical solution, and would only aggravate to the issue if the universe does not change its attitude/ assumption that there is an ‘actual’ technical solution. Hardin tackled the population problem in a harsh manner; defining the roots of the problem and to his idea of solution. Hardin examined the correlation between the population and resources, then analyzed the key factors that caused the population to swell.
This problem of population growth leads to a number of solutions that could have significant implications on the quality of life. Taking no action and allowing population to grow unchecked could possibly risk the entire human species if food or clean water were to become unavailable worldwide. Aiming for zero population growth would in theory maintain the existing quality of life since a stable population would not increase their use of resources. However not all resources are renewable, so scarcities could still occur with a fixed population size. In an extreme case permanent resource depletion under zero population growth could have the same extinction effect that unchecked growth can lead to. Despite the escalating risk of unchecked population growth, technological advances necessitated by the increase in population will at least maintain the quality of life and could possibly improve conditions.