commons is anyplace or thing, Tragedy of, a synopsis

of technology and culture clash in contemporary environments
or powerful institutions that have become outmoded
or religious "otherworldliness" has failed to undertake stewardship
or we are too poorly educated to comprehend the nature’s complexity

Nature as an adversary is narrowly self-defeating stance to take toward the planet.

Rachel Carson’s reminder? "Nature has no need of us."

Hardin’s, Tragedy of the Commons.

Each participant pursuing his or her own best interest brings ruins to a commons, or any of a class of common property resources.

Overview | Summary | Diagram | Key ideas | Conclusion

Interpretations: A summary of 11 major points of the essay.

Overview

"the park belongs to us all" --

"some problems have no technical solutions."

G. H., (1915-2003)

Populations use resources with technology living in some density / square mile

	Density Spectrum

underpopulated	well populated	overpopulated
5 / sq. mile	?	50,000 / sq. mile

"The population problem can not be solved in a technical way." ¶ 5

Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

Melissa Walker’s Reading the Environment.

Roots of the Crisis: Hardin, "Tragedy of the Commons," 502

Freedom to breed is intolerable in a commons over the long term.

"are we not trying to browbeat a free man in a commons into acting against his own interest?" (¶ 52)

"mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by a majority of the people affected." (¶ 56 & ¶ 66 key one!)

Tragedy is an inherent human quality arising from hubris; the capacity for empathy with human tragedy is a sign of our moral imagination -- member of a class of no technical solution problems.

Key ideas:

Weisner & York in 1964 proposed the idea with respect to nuclear weapons of a "dilemma" that " has no technical solution." ¶1

"A technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or morality." ¶2

"no technical solution problems," ¶3

"Every way in which I win, involves, in some sense, the abandonment of the game, as we intuitively understand it." ¶ 4

"My thesis is that the ‘population problem’ as conventionally conceived, is a member of this class....[no technical solution problems," ¶3 ] ¶5

"The population problem cannot be solved in a technical way..." ¶5

"Is ours a finite world?" ¶6

Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons: ten parts

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

1st of 10 points to the argument:

What shall we maximize? ¶s. 6-18

"maximizing population does not maximize goods. Bentham's goal is unobtainable." ¶10

"We want the maximum good per person but what is good?" ¶ 13

"Incommensurables can not be compared."

2d of ten points is

the "tragedy of freedom in a commons"

William Forster Lloyd (1794-1852) rebuttal to the hidden hand in population

"The essence of a dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness....This inevitableness of destiny....the futility of escape can be made evident in the drama" ¶ 19

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

3rd of ten points:

"Pollution"

"In a reverse way, the tragedy of the commons reappears in problems of pollution."

"The air and waters surrounding us cannot be readily fenced. ¶ 31

/ This is a KEYSTONE ¶ (paragraph) \

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

4th:

"How to legislate temperance?"

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? "Who shall watch the watchers themselves?" ¶ 35

5th:

Freedom to Breed Is Intolerable.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

6th:

Conscience is self-eliminating -- it is negated by natural selection.

an appeal to conscience by having fewer children is futile

"To make such an appeal is to set ups a selective system that works toward the elimination of conscience from the race." ¶ 45

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

7th:

Pathogenic effects of conscience -- short - term problems with it

"Everyman then is caught in what Bateson has called a "double bind," important causative factor in mental depression or schizophrenia

8th:

Mutual Coercion mutually agreed upon

"Taxing is a good coercive device." ¶ 55

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

9th:

The recognition of Necessity

"Every new enclosure of the commons involves the infringement of somebody’s personal liberty."

"Freedom is the recognition of necessity."

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

10th,

or last of the ten points:

"The most important aspect of necessity that we must now recognize is the necessity of abandoning the commons in breeding." ¶ 66

"The only way we can preserve and nurture other and more precious freedoms is by relinquishing the freedom to breed, and that very soon."

"It is the role of education to reveal to all the necessity of abandoning the freedom to breed."

Conclusion:

The commons is anyplace or thing that belonging to everyone is the responsibility of no one and because of that people have a reasonable expectation of using the resources of a commons in such a way as to destroy the carrying capacity or the assimilative capacity of the common's productive potential.

Overview | Summary | Diagram | Key ideas | Conclusion

essay

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

§§§

Questions to answer:

What evidence do we have of a planet in peril due to common property?

Describe how each of these exhibit features of a commons:

Greenhouse gases and atmospheric warming.
Ozone hole depletion at the poles & increased UV radiation.
Acid Rain from traffic & power plant emissions.
Forests as watershed sources of aquifers and springs.
Fire ecology and biological diversity as management tools.
Fisheries as an aquatic problem of pasture and assimilative capacity.

Hardin | commons | Tragedy of the Commons | Ecosystem Services

Use Miller’s Environmental Science, Wilson’s Future of Life, and your library research to gather "scientific" evidence, as well as the other articles by Joseph Siry and in Melissa Walker’s Reading the Environment.