5.1 Tragedy of the commons

Tragedy of the commons

Individuals use shared/public resources in their own self interest, degrading them

-must be in public not private

-must be degraded, overused, depleted

Ex: overgrazing, overfishing, water & air pollution, overuse of groundwater

Why does TOC happen

-When no one owns the resource (land water, air) no one directly suffers the negative consequences of depleting, degrading, or overusing

-people assume others will over use the resource if they don’t and there’s no penalty for these actions

Externalities

Negative cost with a humans action that aren’t accounted for in the price (unintended side effects)

Ex: pollutions from a factory

Problem with TOC

-over fishing can lead to fishery collapse

-air pollution from coal power plants can lead to bronchitis, asthma, increased healthcare cost

-pesticides runoff from farms contaminate water

How to solve the TOC

-privately land ownership (individual or government)

-fees or taxes for use

Ex: permit system for grazing, logging

-taxes, fines criminal charges for pollution or shared air/soil/water resources

Ex: clean air act, clean water acts safe drinking water act, bureau of land management