Tragedy of the commons
Empirical methods Prescriptive and policy The tragedy of the commons is the concept that, if many people enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource, such as a pasture, they will tend to overuse it and may end up destroying its value altogether.[4] [5] In 1833, the English economist William Forster Lloyd published "Two Lectures on the Checks to Population",[6] a pamphlet that included a hypothetical example of over-use of a common resource.Carl Dahlman and others have asserted that his description was historically inaccurate, pointing to the fact that the system endured for hundreds of years without producing the disastrous effects claimed by Lloyd.[13] Hardin said that if the children of improvident parents starved to death, if overbreeding was its own punishment, then there would be no public interest in controlling the breeding of families.[18] In the context of avoiding over-exploitation of common resources, Hardin concluded by restating Hegel's maxim (which was quoted by Engels), "freedom is the recognition of necessity".[30] The commons dilemma stands as a model for a great variety of resource problems in society today, such as water, forests,[31] fish, and non-renewable energy sources such as oil, gas, and coal.[citation needed] Another case study involves beavers in Canada, historically crucial for natives who, as stewards, organized to hunt them for food and commerce.[43] Vyse argues that those who defy public health recommendations can be thought of as spoiling a set of common goods,[44] "the economy, the healthcare system, and the very air we breathe,[45] for all of us.[21] Many digital resources have properties that make them vulnerable to the tragedy of the commons, including data,[47] virtual artifacts[48] and even limited user attention.[49] Closely related are the physical computational resources, such as CPU, RAM, and network bandwidth, that digital communities on shared servers rely upon and govern.The motivation for individuals to contribute is reflective of the theory because, if humans act in their own immediate interest and no longer participate, then the resource becomes misinformed or depleted.[61] They argue that unrestricted use of digital resources causes misinformation, fake news, crime, and terrorism, as well as problems of a different nature such as confusion, manipulation, insecurity, and loss of confidence.[63] Other scholars argue more in favor of formal or informal sets of rules, like a code of conduct, to promote ethical behaviour in the digital environment and foster trust.[85] Ecological studies have hypothesised that competitive forces between animals are major in high carrying capacity zones (i.e., near the Equator), where biodiversity is higher, because of natural resources abundance.[88] This perspective proposes that the earth, being the commons, has suffered a depletion of natural resources without regard to the externalities, the impact on neighboring and future populations.[96] Empirical findings support the theoretical argument that the cultural group is a critical factor that needs to be studied in the context of situational variables.[99] An expanded, four factor model of the Logic of Appropriateness,[100][101] suggests that the cooperation is better explained by the question: "What does a person like me (identity) do (rules) in a situation like this (recognition) given this culture (group)?"[118] Anthropologist G. N. Appell criticised those who cited Hardin to "impos[e] their own economic and environmental rationality on other social systems of which they have incomplete understanding and knowledge.This process entails that a river is regarded as its own legal entity that can sue against environmental damage done to it while being represented by an independently appointed guardian advisory group.[126] Similarly, geographer Douglas L. Johnson remarks that many nomadic pastoralist societies of Africa and the Middle East in fact "balanced local stocking ratios against seasonal rangeland conditions in ways that were ecologically sound", reflecting a desire for lower risk rather than higher profit; in spite of this,[127] it was often the case that "the nomad was blamed for problems that were not of his own making and were a product of alien forces."[128] Independently finding precedent in the opinions of previous scholars such as Ibn Khaldun as well as common currency in antagonistic cultural attitudes towards non-sedentary peoples,[128] governments and international organizations have made use of Hardin's work to help justify restrictions on land access and the eventual sedentarization of pastoral nomads despite its weak empirical basis.[129] Examining relations between historically nomadic Bedouin Arabs and the Syrian state in the 20th century, Dawn Chatty notes that "Hardin's argument was curiously accepted as the fundamental explanation for the degradation of the steppe land"[130] in development schemes for the arid interior of the country, downplaying the larger role of agricultural overexploitation in desertification as it melded with prevailing nationalist ideology which viewed nomads as socially backward and economically harmful.While defectors are motivated by self-interest and cooperators feel morally obliged to practice self-restraint, punishers pursue this path when their emotions are clouded by annoyance and anger at free riders.[149] Libertarians and classical liberals cite the tragedy of the commons as an example of what happens when Lockean property rights to homestead resources are prohibited by a government.[152] Economic historian Bob Allen coined the term "Engels' pause" to describe the period from 1790 to 1840, when British working-class wages stagnated and per-capita gross domestic product expanded rapidly during a technological upheaval.[157][158][159] German historian Joachim Radkau thought Hardin advocates strict management of common goods via increased government involvement or international regulation bodies.The idea of giving land a legal personality is intended to enable the democratic system of the rule of law to allow for prosecution, sanction, and reparation for damage to the earth.[193][194] He says it has been used by the political right wing to hasten the final enclosure of the "common resources" of third world and indigenous people worldwide, as a part of the Washington Consensus.[208] Other criticisms have focused on Hardin's racist and eugenicist views, claiming that his arguments are directed towards forcible population control, particularly for people of color.Carol M. Rose, in a 1986 article, discussed the concept of the "comedy of the commons", where the public property in question exhibits "increasing returns to scale" in usage (hence the phrase, "the more the merrier"),[211] in that the more people use the resource, the higher the benefit to each one.
Industrial pollutiontheir effectbehavioral sciencesEconomicsOutlineCategorization codesGlossaryEconomistsmethodologyEconomic theoryMathematical modelingGame theoryRational choiceCognitive scienceBehavioralEconomic equilibriumEmpiricalExperimentalNational accountsEconometricsTime seriesSpatialPrescriptiveWelfare analysisSocial choice theoryRational choice theoryCost–benefit analysisBranches and subfieldsAppliedInternationalMainstreamMathematicalMech. designPoliticalIndustrial org.Market designAgricultureBusinessCulturalDemographicDevelopmentEcologicalEducationEngineeringEnvironmentalEvolutionaryFinancialGeographicHappinessHealthHistoryInformationInstitutionsLabourManagementOrganizationParticipationPersonnelPlanningPolicyPublic sectorPublic choiceSocial choiceRegionalResourcesServiceWelfarepasturetragedyecologyGarrett HardinAristotleUniversal Declaration of Human RightsElinor OstromNobel Prize in EconomicsWilliam Forster Lloydovergrazingenclosureecologistsocial dilemmaSciencenatural scienceshuman valuesmoralitypopulation growthnatural resourceswelfare stateMalthusian catastropheUnited NationsU ThantSecretary-General of the United Nationsconscienceselfishfree ridersover-exploitationcommon resourcesEngelsCausal loop diagramsystems theorysystem archetypesThomas Malthushuman population growthmetaphorsustainabilitynon-renewable energyGrand Banks of NewfoundlandsalmonColumbia RiverNorthwest United StatesNorth AtlanticAral SeaLos AngelesMono LakeOwens Lakeexternalitypollutioncarbon emissionsopen dataCOVID-19 pandemicdigital dividelimited user attentionnetwork bandwidthshared serversdigital environmentdigital commonsdatabase