California Institute of The Arts Tragedy of the Commons Analysis Paper

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nyrurean

Science

California Institute of the Arts

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Frame (state and describe) what you think “The problem of people” means in terms of the environment and its relationship to human population size.

What was Hardin’s perspective?

How do you think the Tragedy of the Commons can (could, must, or doesn’t have to) relate to environmental issues as seen in 2020?

Conclude with what all of the above means for environmental issues and what if anything needs to be or can be done.

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Mike Bryant – The Problem with People Many environmental problems are related to how many people there are on Earth, but does this mean that there is a “problem with people”? Humans can be seen to stress the environment in a few different ways. One way is the extent to which the average person impacts the resources on Earth. A second is related to how many people in total live on the Earth. There is an underlying assumption that the available resources (air, space, food, water etc.) on Earth is finite. Even renewable resources, such as food, have a finite upper limit of use to be considered “renewable”. The problems with people are a consequence of the limited availability of resources combined with what we are willing to sacrifice in order to minimize our environmental impact as the human population grows. The finite resources on Earth is not sufficient to doom humanity to extinction. Humans could, in theory, maintain a population size at a level that sustainably uses these resources. That would mean using the resources at a rate that allows their continual replacement. As an example, food can be produced, or replaced, every season. Garret Hardin in “The Tragedy of the Commons” (1968) addressed the question of will humanity regulate their own population size and resource use. Hardin’s answer was complex and sadly, definitive in the long run. Hardin describes a village green or town commons used as a shared pasture to present a tragedy that applies to any shared, public resource. Hardin extends the analysis beyond a pasture from which nutrients are extracted as it equally applies to available land or atmosphere where waste (solid, liquid or gas) is deposited. The tragedy results from the dynamic where individuals seek to maximize their person gains. An extra animal on the public commons used the shared resource (grass) but the benefits are awarded solely to the owner of the animal (in terms of meat, milk or labor). Each individual will seek to maximize their use of the commons. 1 Mike Bryant – The Problem with People Hardin rightfully acknowledges the with each grazing animal, a cost is incurred. In the cattle on the pasture example, the cost is the reduction of availability of grass. This part of the analysis is simple and trivial. The subtle and ultimate driver of the tragedy is that the cost, like the pasture is shared, the availability of grass is reduced for all cattle. The Inevitable overuse of resources emerges from personal (even if diminishing) gain from use of the commons that is only offset by the smaller cost (made even smaller because it is shared) of using the commons. Hardin’s conclusion is that human population size is “problem with no technical solution”. Humans will keep reproducing until our resources are exhausted. Technological advances in agriculture, energy or waste disposal will only postpone our ruin. To prevent our demise, humans will have to fundamentally change their values. Hardin’s article was published over 50 years ago, the human population in 1968 was about 3.5 billion (Figure 5.5 Botkin & Keller 2014) and has more than doubled since then (Population Reference Bureau 2017). This suggests that humanity has not fully grasped the threat we will eventually face. Luckily, many humans have adopted a set of moral values that will help nudge humanity away from a trajectory that runs straight to ruin. But the tragedy of the commons still applies until our population growth rate is no longer positive. The Logistic Model of population growth introduces the term K or carrying capacity. Population growth (dN/dt), will equal zero when the population size of humans is equal to K. This population size is conceptually equal to the maximum population size sustainable under all the required resources. At this point, the number of births would equal the number of deaths. What the model asks us to consider is what will these birth and death rates look like? Will they both be high, with the implication of an accompanying state of elation (birth) and trauma (death)? Will 2 Mike Bryant – The Problem with People sustaining this population mean that natural world is impoverished accept for fields of high energy yielding crops for human consumption? Predictions about this future are likely to be imprecise, but perhaps their utility rests in their ability to provoke the moral changes Hardin suggests are required. Hardin’s thesis suggests that in order to avoid the problems of over population, humanity must mutually agree to be coerced to limit our reproduction. But some nations have seen reductions in birth rates without apparent or overt coercion. The demographic transition models point to changes in the labor force as factors in this (Botkin & Keller 2014) reduction. Economies that rely on highly educated populations and where both males and females participate equally tend to have lower birth rates. Two questions then emerge. First how to harness this on a global scale. Secondly, how to promote this type of highly technical society while keeping the resource utilization at a minimum. The first issue is easier, but not still not easy. My suggestion is to facilitate the spread of technology and education as a human public health issue. This can be through programs offered in more developed countries that are for free to citizens from less developed countries. This would create the demand and opportunity for major cultural shifts in family planning as per the demographic transition model’s prediction. The second issue is more problematic. If all we achieve is converting people to a more technological and high consumption life style, similar to what we currently see in the United States, we only succeed in getting the human population to carrying capacity faster through increase average per capita consumption. Education, globally targeted but initially focused on the developed world, will need to shift the focus from a society of consumers and producers of disposable goods and services to one of sustainable 3 Mike Bryant – The Problem with People goods and services. I can’t see how this will happen without a major shift in the distribution of wealth. This redistribution will also require a major shift in values, perhaps through education that promotes a simpler life with more leisure time and leisure activities that embrace nature instead of consuming nature will be a starting point. If successful, the educational efforts could lead to the changes in values that will user human population growth rates to zero or even negative for a period of time. The tragedy of the commons will always be present, so the education will have to be continuous. If we keep the human population below K, quality of life should be high and this will help sustain the system of morals required to circumvent tragedy. Literature Cited Botkin, Daniel B., and Edward A. Keller. "The Human Population and the Environment." Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet. 9th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2014. 81-102. Print. Hardin, G. 1968. The Tragedy of the Commons. Science. 162:1243-1248. “2017 World Population Data Sheet.” Population Reference Bureau, 1 Aug. 2017, www.prb.org/. 4
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Outline for the Problem of People
Overview: An overview of views in the article.
Hardin’s Perspective: The analysis of the views of Hardin.
Tragedy of the Commons Today: The section explains the way the world today responds to the
tragedy of the commons.
Conclusion: The part includes a summary of the essay and the possible solutions.
References: A list of references used.


Running head: PROBLEM OF PEOPLE

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The Problem of People
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

PROBLEM OF PEOPLE

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The Problem of People
Overview

The main idea in the article...


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I was struggling with this subject, and this helped me a ton!

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