The Tragedy of the Commons - Emma Forrest

    The “tragedy of the commons” describes what happens when a shared resource is used by many people and there is no clear structure of responsibility. Everyone benefits individually from using the resource, but if everyone uses it freely, it becomes degraded over time. Examples include overfishing in international waters, litter in public parks, and even air pollution. No one person causes the problem, but everyone's contributions join together and cause a problem.

    The question rises as to whether the commons must inevitably collapse, or whether a form of collective organization can prevent that outcome. Some societies have historically managed shared resources successfully through community agreements and cultural norms. The issue seems to arise when the number of users becomes too large or too disconnected from each other. Modern society makes this worse because we rarely directly see the consequences of our own consumption. If everyone acts individually, the resource suffers. But the question is, what would encourage people to act more collectively?


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