MODULE 2: The tragedy of the commons

AGENDA

1. Encounters
2. Environmental news
3. Module 2

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Encounters...kinship?

• foundation of indigenous environmental ethics
• is it a good foundation? 
• can we look at nature this way?

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Environmental news

Drawings for Sad People

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Module 2: population

1. Population--fundamental topic with relevance to all our other topics
2. Tragedy of the commons -- also fundamental

Plan

1. Mon: Garrett Hardin (1968) -- population worries, predictions, proposals, "tragedy of the commons"
2. Wed: Population trends 55 years later  (reports)
3. Fri: Toby Ord (2014)--"Overpopulation or underpopulation?"

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Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons" (1968)

• Population fears on the 1960s
• Garrett Hardin, Paul Ehrlich, Kenneth Boulding (biologists, economists)
• Watch up to 3:21

 

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Garrett Hardin's analysis of population growth: a tragedy of the commons

What is a commons?

Boston Common

The pasture example

• 10 shepherds share a pasture-- a "commons"
• Because it's a commons, depletion (the tragedy) is inevitable
• Why inevitable?
1. each shepherd keeps the whole benefit of adding one more sheep
2. each shepherd shares the cost (harm) of adding one more with the other 9
3. this means each has incentive to add more sheep
4. eventually there will be too many sheep and the pasture will be depleted (the tragedy)

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Hardin's other examples of the "tragedy of the commons" -- remember, this is 1968

1. Free parking (commons = free spaces)
2. National park access (commons=park)
   
3. Dumping garbage (commons = streamm or lake)
4. Air pollution (commons = atmosphere)
5. Water use (commons = groundwater)
6. Buffalo hunting before ~1880 (commons = public herds)
7. Having children (commons = world plus food & health assistance)

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How can the tragedy of the commons be avoided?

1. ETHICS. Hardin says ineffective.
2. COERCION. Hardin: "mutual coercion mutually agreed upon by the majority of people affected" (p. 1247).

Applications of coercion:

1. Free parking--parking meters
2. National park access--payment, reservations, timed entry
3. Dumping in stream--laws, fines
4. Air pollution--laws, regulations
5. Using up groundwater--limit water use (various laws in different states)
6. Buffalo over-kill--hunting permits
7. Reproducing...

Ethical approach to overpopulation

• 1960s ZPG movement--wrong to have more than 2 children
• Today--some people refrain for ethical reasons
• Are commons problems ever solved through ethics?

Coercive approach to overpopulation 

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A proposal from the 1960s 

• Kenneth Boulding, The Meaning of the Twentieth Century (1965) p. 135-136
• Cap and trade for reproduction
• Decide on cap--1, 2, 2.1, whatever, per person
• Women get the permits
• Unused permits can be sold or gifted
• Reproducing without a permit is prohibited--deterred through taxes, fines, imprisonment, what?

Real world coercion (not mutually agreed upon)

• Involuntary sterilization programs
• China's one-child policy (which came to an end) -- mutually agreed upon?

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Next--

1. Did population growth continue like the 60s authors predicted?
2. If not,  was that because of ethics OR coercion OR something else?
3. Are there now too many people? How many is too many?