Selection 7
This selection starts off by explaining that overpopulation cannot have a simple solution. Where you cannot just hope that technology, fishing the oceans, coming up with new “super productive” grains will solve our problems1.
He goes on to talk about how humans have a need for such things like food. If a man wants more cattle to eat, he has to let them graze on pastures. At the same time the pastures can only support a number of cattle, before they must re-grow to feed the next batch. With the addition of these extra cattle, the pasture doesn’t have as much time to re-grow and is now in a deficit. This continues, and sooner or later you have too many cattle, and not enough pasture to grow them on. The same theory can be said about our forests, parks, oceans, and other systems that we depend or utilize.
Pollution is another part of the tragedy of the commons, one man’s waste is cheaper to dispose into the “commons” than it is to clean before disposing of his wastes. However this is true to every man, and with all men thinking like this, we end up with a polluted world. What once took a short time for nature to purify, is taking longer and longer, as we continue to pollute.
1. Environmental Studies, Thomas Easton ( Selection 7, Hardin)
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