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146 comments on Conservation in the food chain

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Will on March 27, 2006 - 10:55am

Don,

I wanted to thank you for that mention of Garret Hardin in a recent thread. I had forgotten that seminal article on the commons he wrote in 1968. It is dead-on relevant for this group. Your book suggestion is on order. I think the TOD readership might want to either reacquaint itself with, or become familiar, with this man. He is a giant.

http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_tragedy_of_the_commons.html

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Don Sailorman on March 27, 2006 - 12:49pm

Thanks,
One of these days I'd like to see a thread on the tragedy of the commons, because it is the single most important concept (IMO) prerequisite to understanding how the world has gotten into its present situation, and, again in my opinion, Garrett Hardin presents unique solutions backed up by rigorous science.

The problem, of course, is that facts and scientific interpretation go contrary to what most of us want to believe.

As I have stated before, there are no limits to human self-deception, and unless and until we face up to the tragedy of the commons there can be no hope of a better world.

In the Environmental Economics class I used to teach back in the seventies, I used Hardin's "Exploring New Ethics for Survival: The Voyage of the Spaceship Beagle" and found the freshman students, even the average ones, were able to grasp the material, and some became passionately interested in the environmental movement as a result of studying the book. Truly, it is a life-transforming volume--and the classic essay (included as an Appendix to the book) is the best place to start.

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Yankee on March 27, 2006 - 1:08pm

Prof. Goose tackled the tragedy of the commons way back when. Maybe he'll be able to update someday for the new readership.

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Don Sailorman on March 27, 2006 - 2:28pm

Thank you. By all means, let Professor Goose (or somebody) do an update.

BTW, Hardin's thinking is consistent with both capitalism and mainstream economic thinking, because he insists that prices should reflect all costs, not just "accounting" or "internal" costs but also external costs as well.

I know of no economist (no matter how disreputable) who claims that "external" costs should not be taken account of in decision-making. The problem comes in how to implement the idea of internalizing external costs, and also how to implement "mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon."

Obviously, markets cannot function where the commons is destroyed--and that applies not only to population increase but to pollution and to overuse of any and all natural resources.

Unfortunately, Hardin's rigorous scientific conclusions are rejected by politically correct Democrats and both religious-right and "free-market-fat-cat" Republicans. That is one reason I seldom vote for either members of either two major parties--because they both fail, and fail equally, to come to grips with the most fundamental problems.

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Will on March 27, 2006 - 6:47pm

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Will on March 27, 2006 - 6:54pm

I hope the issue returns to the forum. I just read "Turning Sludge into Gold" behind WSJ's paywall. It's about the tar sand development. It made me wonder what will be expected of us in the U.S. going forward with coal development given what Canada is prepared to do, is doing, to this wilderness.

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Mad Maxout on March 27, 2006 - 10:33pm

Ah, yes, the tragedy of the commons. If I get to try to explain it to eco-newbies, I have a fun thought experiment - which I would love to bring to reality if I ever hit the lotto.

Here it is. You hit the lotto, set up a bank account for your family with exactly one million bucks in it, and it's a joint account. You invite your family to a table and explain that this joint account is to teach them to cooperate. You hand out the VISA Debit cards and have them sign a no-harassment contract.

Each family member will realise that they gain most by draining the account as quickly as possible, so the race is on, once the first makes the move. The end-game occurs when the last bit of money is in the bank and all of them show up at the bank to extract the last bit of money. With family members packing heat, a shooting or two occurs. And everyone who survives is permanently angry at everyone else. Meanwhile, you DID make sure to hide in Ft. McMurray (which they conviently don't know about) so when they waste money looking for you in resort towns in Europe they never find you.

This thought experiment has all the ingredients of a tragedy of the commons. A commons, the joint account, game theory dictating that players maximise gain by draining it despite it being to others' detriment, and selfishness overriding cooperation. We know that married couples have money squabbles any time a joint account exists, like the extreme case above.

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