Transcription
Hi everybody, it's Mr. Snead's, and certainly, we will be starting off unit 5 by covering topic 5.1, which is the tragedy of the Commons. So, the tragedy of the Commons is this idea that people tend to overuse public or shared resources since they don't experience the negative consequences of doing so. It can help us understand issues as complex as air and water pollution and as simple as why public restrooms are so dirty.
Our objective for the day is to be able to explain the concept of the tragedy of the Commons, and the essential knowledge that we need in order to do this is to know that the tragedy of the Commons suggests individuals tend to use public or shared resources in their own self-interest, which will deplete these resources. Our suggested science skill for the day is concept explanation.
So, first, we'll define what the tragedy of the Commons is. The phrase was originally coined by a British economist, William Foster Lloyd, who used the overgrazing of animals on shared public lands as an example of when individuals act in their own self-interest rather than the interest of the greater good. But it didn't become part of mainstream environmentalist theory until 1968 when an American ecologist named Garret Hardin wrote an essay with the title "The Tragedy of the Commons," which drew heavily from Lloyd's work.
The basic idea is that individuals tend to overuse shared resources in their own self-interest, which will deplete these resources. Now, there are two really important key points here. They have to be public resources, not private ones, because then the users would experience the negative consequences of their overuse. And the second one is that the resource has to be depleted by this overuse, so it can't be something that's not affected by overuse.
So, we'll take a look at some examples now. The classic example is overgrazing, and that's having too many animals on one patch of land. As we can see sheep here in the picture. Then there's overfishing, which is another classic example of people catching so many fish that we deplete fish populations and leave none for future generations. Water and air pollution of all sorts are another great example. And then, finally, we have overuse of groundwater, which we'll look at a little more in depth with a specific Michigan example.
So, why does the tragedy of the Commons happen? Well, the reason is that when no one owns a resource, no one directly suffers the negative consequences of depleting or overusing that resource. The same idea that applies to public restrooms applies to public resources. So, if you've ever been in a public restroom, they're oftentimes quite dirty. There's a lot of paper towel left on the floor or water splashed all over the mirror, and this is because no one directly feels responsible for keeping it clean. So, the people that use it don't have to suffer the consequences of it becoming dirty because they get to just leave and go home. On the other hand, if they owned that restroom, if it was in their own house, they probably treat it a lot differently. They'd probably keep it a lot cleaner.
For a Michigan example, we have a private company, Nestle, who recently submitted a request to increase the rate of pumping water from a well in Everett, Michigan, from 250 to 400 gallons a minute. This is because the groundwater that they're pumping is a public shared resource, so they're not going to suffer the negative consequences of overusing it. If they overuse this groundwater source and deplete it, and it's not available for future use, they can just move and find another site to pump groundwater. They aren't stuck living there with the consequences of having depleted that groundwater.
Another cause for the tragedy of the Commons is this idea that if I don't overuse the resource, someone else will. So, we have a great comic here to illustrate that. We have the fisherman on the left saying, "Well, there it is, the last fish in the ocean," and he seems kind of concerned about this. And the guy on the right has got a big grin, says, "Woohoo! At least we beat the Russians and the Spaniards to it." So, that's just kind of illustrates this idea that people assume, "If I don't overuse the resource, someone else will, so why not profit from what's left of it?"
And then, finally, there are just oftentimes no real direct consequences for overusing or depleting a resource. We see this especially in developing nations like Peru here, where there's hazardous medical waste just being dumped into a river. So, without laws that will threaten to sue or impose harsh fines on people that do this, there's less of an incentive to care for those publicly shared resources.
So, what's the problem with the tragedy of the Commons? Why is this really such a big issue? Well, the first issue is that things like overfishing can lead to total depletion of resources. So, we have this case of the Atlantic cod here, which was overfished severely in the late '60s and the '70s, and then we see this huge population crash, and so fishermen are going to lose their income. And in parts of the world where people really rely on fish for food, there may even be starvation.
Another great example is air pollution. So, air pollution comes from driving our cars. It comes especially from coal-fired power plants to produce the electricity we demand. And so, this is going to put things like sulfur dioxide into the air, and it's going to be really harmful to people's lungs. It damages their respiratory tract. It can make asthma and bronchitis worse, and over the long run, there's going to be increased healthcare costs for these people who are suffering from these respiratory issues.
Another great example is pesticide use. So, farmers put pesticides on their crops to increase their yield, increase the amount of food they produce and their profits. But these pesticides are washed away in the rain. They can get into local rivers and streams or even trickle down to the groundwater, and that can contaminate groundwater sources that people use for drinking. It can damage fish populations in the streams that people rely on for recreation and for income. And so, all of these are what we call negative externalities.
So, a negative externality is a cost that comes with a human activity, but that isn't experienced by the person that's doing that activity. So, the coal-fired power plants that are producing a lot of sulfur dioxide, they don't experience the negative healthcare costs of the people who have worsened asthma or bronchitis. Or the farmer who sprays pesticides on their crops, they don't experience the negative recreational dollars that are lost from downstream communities whose fish populations suffer. And so, we can see that these negative externalities are basically passed on to a different person somewhere else, and that's what we call an externality because the cost is externalized. Think of it kind of as like an unintended consequence.
So, how do we solve the tragedy of the Commons? Well, the first concept is to make publicly shared resources private, either by selling them to individuals or by having government ownership so that someone is responsible for maintaining them and they don't fall victim to the tragedy of the Commons. Another way to do this is to impose fees or taxes for using the resources. So, examples include having a permit system for grazing or forcing logging companies to pay a permit to come and log an area. And that idea is that the more that people have to pay per unit of a resource they use, the more likely they are to consider using less and to use it more sustainably.
And then the last option is a more punitive option. This is the idea of imposing taxes, fines, or even criminal charges for groups or individuals that are polluting shared resources, especially air, soil, and water. So, let's look at some examples. We have the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act, and these are all acts that give the EPA the power to impose fines, penalties on companies or individuals that are polluting these shared resources.
In terms of grazing, we have something called the Bureau of Land Management, and they oversee tons of public rangelands in the western United States. They collect grazing fees from ranchers and they also conduct studies on the quality of the land and help restore it so that it doesn't fall victim to the tragedy of the Commons.
Our suggested science practice for topic 5.1 today is explaining environmental concepts or processes. So, I want you to try to answer this practice RQ. It says, "The oceans of the world are often referred to as a commons. So, identify one other commons, explain how human activity affects that commons, and then propose a solution for managing that commons."
Alright everybody, thanks for tuning in today. Don't forget to like this video if it was helpful, subscribe for future APES video updates, and check out other notes over here to the side. And as always, think like a mountain, write like a scholar.