Sustainability In Garrett Hardin's The Tragedy Of The Commons

I included “collaborative” in my definition because it is important to point out that sustainability as a system can only be successful if everyone puts their foot forward and pitches in. A collective effort is needed to avoid a system failure, such as those failures found in monoculture, factory food system, and overpopulation in Garrett Hardin’s article, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons.’ In his article, Hardin presented the problem of our ever-growing population, examined the relation of population to resources and concluded that the population must be brought under control. An increase in human population creates an increased strain on limited resources, which threatens sustainability. He rejects any technical solutions to the problem, such

A man, named the Once-ler, arrives in a beautiful valley full of animals and truffula trees. He had been searching for a tree such as the truffula in order to knit a Thneed, a garment made of wool that grows atop the truffula tree. When he realizes he can make a profit by selling Thneeds, he beings to cut down more and more truffula trees. He is halted several times by a small fuzzy orange animal, named the Lorax, who speaks for the trees and voices his disapproval of the deforestation. He states that many of the animals who eat the fruit from the truffula trees have been forced to move away, and the smoke and pollution from the man’s Thneed factory have polluted the air and streams, causing many of the animals to become sick. The man, taking a very reactive approach, refuses to stop and says he will keep on “biggering” his business. He is at the lowest scale of having any relationship with the

Although this may sound simple enough, the hardest part is how this restriction of commons can be achieved. Hardin believes it can be accomplished through “mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon,” as opposed to individual ethical behavior. Rules to govern the commons must be enforced by the citizens and they must have incentives to cooperate. The problem then is gaining people’s consent to a system of coercion. Individuals must learn that sacrificing the right to a public good will obtain other more important freedoms which will otherwise be lost. A “shift in human values and ideas or mortality” to accept responsibility is needed to enable cooperative efforts to avoid systemic problems that can lead to a tragedy of the commons. We must educate individuals about the tragedy of the commons, its consequences, and alternatives to it. People will consent if they knew and understood the urgent and critical