[Part 1](https://steemit.com/economics/@mountainwashere/economics-and-the-environment-part-1-the-cost-of-climate-change), [Part 2](https://steemit.com/economics/@mountainwashere/economics-and-the-environment-part-2-legibility)

In 1883, British economist William Forster Lloyd postulated a scenario in which the village commons- a parcel of land shared by the village in which anyone could graze their animals- could be grossly overgrazed simply by everyone acting in an individually rational fashion by grazing as many animals as they could on the commons. He called it the Tragedy of the Commons. It was one of the first, and most influential, examples in economics of an understanding of how behaviors on one scale can be rational, but on another scale those identical actions are completely irrational- and it became a huge deal eighty years later when an ecologist got a hold of the idea.

![465px-Medieval_Open_Field_System.JPG](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmabNmNn8JvsaeZY2JCLgkHKcjdwheC37WUC49jUSwPFeh)
*Despite Lloyd's hypothetical situation being extremely useful, it's not actually very historically accurate- medieval villages were actually quite strict about their grazing rules on their commons. Cases of overgrazing commons were so rare as to be major sources of interest both at the time and to modern historians, often resulting in massive legal cases, severe social consequences, and even riots and outright violence. Still, however, Lloyd's choice of example is an incredibly useful and easy to understand metaphor, and is praiseworthy as such. In this map of a medieval village, the green area in the upper right is the commons.* [[Image source]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Medieval_Open_Field_System.JPG)

Ecologist Garret Hardin was the next thinker to put a lot of time into the idea of the tragedy of the commons. Taking off where Lloyd left off, Hardin used the idea to explore various Malthusian threats. He made a lot of interesting claims, many of which are still in common discussion today- like the idea that we can't trust individual conscience to regulate the commons, thanks to the presence of selfish individuals. Part 1 of this series, we discussed the risk of freeriders not contributing to carbon emission mitigation- exactly what Hardin was worrying about, albeit on a national, rather than individual, basis. In fact, Hardin's article on the tragedy of the commons in *Science* is the single most cited journal article of the 20th century in biology. 

There are a lot of quibbles that have been made with Lloyd and Hardin's name for the phenomena, but they're really not worth our time to go over. Instead, let's just understand that the tragedy of the commons refers to a publicly accessible resource being ruined or drained due to undermanagement by the body public. As mentioned before, the greatest good for the individual is often very, very different than the greatest good for the many. 

![image.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmdVbgZ8qmRyZY1WeGeoAgr5GAnAa7TFimhy4JaqE4v4HX)
*A sea otter. From the earliest days of European exploration of the American West Coast, sea otters who lived in kelp forests off the shore were hunted for their pelts. These otters, which can live their entire lives without ever needing to leave the water, was essential to the ecology of the kelp forests. As they were wiped out (eventually being reduced to a single group of 32 otters), the kelp forests they lived in began to die off as well- sea urchins, usually kept in check by sea otters, one of their main predators, began devouring the forests. After 1911, when the otter populations were protected and began recovering, the forests began recovering as well. This is a classic example of the damage that can be done by overexploitation of a resource- in this case, otters.* [[Image source]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sea_Otter_(Enhydra_lutris)_(25169790524)_crop.jpg)

The tragedy of the commons is no theoretical issue facing severely overpopulated future populations, however- it's happening right here and right now, and has occurred countless times throughout history before. One of the most spot on- and damaging- examples in history is occurring right now: Fishery collapse. We've brutally overfished our oceans, to the point where it takes 18 times as much effort per pound of fish landed as it did a century ago, even though our technology is immensely more advanced now. The ecological damage really can't be overstated- 90% of large bony fish have been taken from our oceans in the last century.

Thanks to the way our oceans are (under)regulated, it's extremely hard to control fishing in international waters- near impossible, really- and most countries lack the ability or the resolve to prevent overfishing in their waters- indeed, there've been a large number of international incidents where nations applied significant economic and political power to attempt to force other nations to allow them to fish in their waters. (See the [Lobster War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster_War), the [Cod Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars), the [Turbot War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbot_War) - none of which were actual wars, but were quite contentious diplomatic incidents nonetheless.) The United States and some other nations have begun extensively growing marine wildlife preserves, areas where fishing and many other harmful human activities are forbidden, but they're not nearly at the size they need to be. And while the Obama and Bush administrations were both strong allies in the fight for ocean conservation, the Trump administration has quite fairly been labeled by many as the least environmentally friendly American Presidency ever.

![image.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmafKgCT54XRCJWYysNu8AG4esJiBy4ESgQUp1YfJV17HA)
*The collapse of the North Atlantic Cod fishery is possibly the most dramatic example of the tragedy of the commons in recent history. Extensive overfishing of cod occurred thanks to burgeoning demand and development of better fishing technologies like electric freezers and bottom crawlers. The fishing corporations and the Canadian government completely ignored the threat until it was far too late to do anything about, despite warnings from scientists and local fishermen. The Canadian and Newfoundland governments completely failed to properly manage the cod fishery, which is a perfect example of the commons, and gives ample warning for how the 'wisdom of the market' can lead to immense catastrophes when it runs counter to ecological realities. 25 years later, the cod population still hasn't recovered to a degree large enough to allow renewed fishing- and, in fact, some scientists suspect that the marine ecosystems in the Northwest Atlantic might have been permanently altered in a new, stable form. This is a far cry from the days centuries ago when the cod were reportedly so thick you could walk atop their backs and not sink into the water.* [[Image source]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Surexploitation_morue_surp%C3%AAcheEn.jpg)

Of course, modern humans don't even have close to a monopoly on tragedy of the commons crises. Humans have overexploited food sources countless times- the dodo was a classic example of this.  It's not just food sources that's at threat, however- any resource in demand that's accessible by large numbers of parties can easily be depleted this way. In Ancient Greece, the absurd demand for lumber led to rapid expansion of various Greek powers- most notably the Athenian Empire- entirely fueled by demand for more lumber, as their lands were deforested. Of course, the more they expanded, the more lumber they needed in order to expand, so it was a vicious cycle. Rome behaved similarly with their forests and their topsoil- it was the reason they were forced to get most of their grain from Egypt.

While modern humans might not have a monopoly on tragedy of the commons crises, we certainly have taken them to greater levels than any civilization before us. One of the most dangerous approaching us is water scarcity- we're using freshwater at an unsustainable rate in many regions. We're using so much of the Colorado River that it's rare when literally ANY water reaches the Sea of Cortez from it. (LA and Pheonix are the worst offenders, but everyone along the length of the Colorado is to blame.) The Oglalla Aquifer in the American Midwest is starting to run dry in many places- within twenty years, large chunks of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado will be simply uninhabitable due to lack of water. Some parts of them have already become uninhabitable. There are countless other water based examples around the globe, as well as many other resource crises. Peak oil is one example, and climate change is its dark inverse- a situation in which we're polluting, rather than depleting, a resource absolutely counts as a tragedy of the commons crisis. 

![image.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/Qmf93ZYDBonD3tmHR6iWzUzc9jAxRBGkcSMLYaLejoQqaD)
*The giant flightless moa were hunted to extinction within 200 years of the Maori settling New Zealand- which, in turn, led to the extinction of the Haast's eagle, the largest eagle to ever live, which preyed upon the giant birds.* [[Image source]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_Haasts_eagle_attacking_New_Zealand_moa.jpg)

In order to avoid this crises, there are a few things that we as a civilization must understand and act upon: First, that the rational best interests of individuals are not the same as those of communities, which are not the same as those of nations, which are not the same as the world as a whole. We have to learn to balance all these levels of interest a lot more sustainably than we are now. Second, that the market, when interacting with other complex systems, frequently results in massive damage to them when unregulated. Third, we must act on all organized levels above the individual to protect ourselves and the Earth- ranging from the village level to the international level. Fourth, and most importantly, that we must learn to think much farther ahead than we do now.

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**Bibliography:**

- - [*Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations* by David R. Montgomery](https://smile.amazon.com/Dirt-Erosion-Civilizations-New-Preface-ebook/dp/B007V2D4JO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1530590521&sr=1-1&keywords=dirt+the+erosion+of+civilization)
- -  [*An Environmental History of the World*, by J. Donald Hughes](https://smile.amazon.com/Environmental-History-World-Humankinds-Environment-ebook/dp/B002KNS1JC/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1530590596&sr=1-3&keywords=an+environmental+history+of+the+world+donald)
- [*The Tragedy of the Commons*, by Garret Hardin. Published in *Science*, December 1968](http://science.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243.full)
- [*Cadillac Desert*, by Marc Reisner](https://smile.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert-American-Disappearing-Revised-ebook/dp/B001RTKIUA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530679753&sr=8-1&keywords=cadillac+desert)
- [*Environmental Problems of the Greeks and Romans*, by J Donald Hughes](https://smile.amazon.com/Environmental-Problems-Greeks-Romans-Mediterranean/dp/142141211X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530679797&sr=8-1&keywords=environmental+problems+of+the+greeks+and+romans)
- [*The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea*, by Callum Roberts](https://smile.amazon.com/Ocean-Life-Fate-Man-Sea/dp/0143123483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530679832&sr=8-1&keywords=ocean+of+life)
- [*The Sixth Extinction*, by Elizabeth Kolbert](https://smile.amazon.com/Sixth-Extinction-Unnatural-History-ebook/dp/B00EGJE4G2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530679895&sr=1-1&keywords=the+sixth+extinction)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_land
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_otter
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrafting
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overexploitation
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_scarcity
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_cod
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_the_Atlantic_northwest_cod_fishery

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