What is the Tragedy of the Commons

Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit — in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. ”

– Garrett Hardin

 

 

 Although this seemingly complex concept explains many pervasive and persistent environmental issues around the world, it is one that we observe in our daily decision-making processes. The common man, you and I, with rarely any ill intentions to cause harm, can end up making choices that can be detrimental to those around us.

 

Let’s imagine a simple scenario:

 

 

 Photo by Giuseppe Argenziano from Unsplash

Here lies a grocery shopper named John that is decked out in protective equipment (mask and gloves). During the initial phases of COVID-19, hordes of shoppers rushed to the store to stock up on and over-purchased these essential goods. These consumers rapidly cleared out supermarket shelves, resulting in many others not being able to obtain these essential resources.

 

 

Have you ever wondered why this happens?

 

Photo by John Cameron from Unsplash

To understand this problem, we look to the idea of the Tragedy of the Commons. There are two parts to this concept.

 

 

(a) The tragedy

In the case of the supermarket, John would feel that if he did not buy as many bags of rice as his hands could hold, he would be losing out to someone who would do so. However, if there are only limited bags of rice supplied to a supermarket daily and if everyone held the same perspective, then the overconsumption of rice would be inevitable. Thus, John feels helpless as an individual to stop this overconsumption and proceeds to buy more rice than actually needed.

 

This occurs when there is no cohesive effort to limit consumption to a renewable rate. Without a limit, stopping one’s consumption of the resource only confers their benefit to another person, rendering a single person’s effort to stop this ineffective. And this is exactly the thought that runs through everyone’s mind, which leads to everyone trying to fight for as many resources as possible.

 

 

 

(b) (of) The commons

 

This refers to a resource that is open to the public that people have access to such as the goods in a supermarket. Essential goods such as rice and toilet paper can be considered renewable resources as a limited amount of these resources are replaced in the supermarkets daily. Due to unmanaged people having no limit on consumption, this can lead to an over-purchase of essential goods. In nature, it could mean trees, fish stocks, clean water resources, and many more. 

Often, consuming these resources results in more benefits for the user while increasing harm for others. For example, take a look at this picture:

Photo by Casey Horner from Unsplash
This picture depicts air pollution from energy companies.  The total economic benefit of selling the electricity generated by burning coal is gained by the company. However, these greenhouse gases exacerbate global warming which negatively impacts us all, and this cost is not fully born by the company responsible for this emission. The tip of the balance of costs instead of benefits results in an unrestrained continued emission. On a macro level, the tragedy of the commons greatly influences the way we impact the natural world. In some cases, these tragedies threaten our survival. 

This blog is for you if you would like to:

  1. Learn about real-life Tragedy of the Commons 

  2. Discover success stories of these tragedies

  3. Prevent this tragedy.

Why Does It Happen?