In a seminal essay that helped lay the groundwork for America’s environmental movement, ecologist Garrett Hardin wrote “The Tragedy of the Commons” in 1968. Recently we read Hardin’s updated essay of the same name that seems especially relevant when considering the photograph above. It was taken from space of the toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie that shut down public water systems in lakeside cities like Toledo, OH earlier this month. A major contributor to the cyanobacteria algae bloom you see here is farming.

Here is the story of the “Tragedy of the Commons” as retold by Hardin himself in the “Concise Encyclopedia of Economics” (www.econlib.org/library/Enc/TragedyoftheCommons.html). (Hardin died in 2003.)

In old England, sheep farmers would graze their flocks on “the commons,” public pasture land open to all. In the beginning, there was enough grass for everyone’s sheep, but as some farmers prospered and expanded their flocks, the commons was put at risk of being overgrazed. Even knowing this, the farmers could not help themselves. Each, in his own self-interest, wanting to prosper further, continued to add sheep—until the commons was destroyed.

Hardin cites political economist William Foster Lloyd, who originally described this dilemma in 1832.

“At the point when the carrying capacity of the commons was fully reached, a herdsman might ask himself, ‘Should I add another animal to my herd?’” Hardin wrote. “Because the herdsman owned his animals, the gain of so doing would come solely to him. But the loss incurred by overloading the pasture would be “commonized” among all the herdsmen. Because the privatized gain would exceed his share of the commonized loss, a self-seeking herdsman would add another animal to his herd. And another. And reasoning in the same way, so would all the other herdsmen. Ultimately, the common property would be ruined. Even when herdsmen understand the long-run consequences of their actions, they generally are powerless to prevent such damage without some coercive means of controlling the actions of each individual.”

Hardin also quotes James Madison: “As James Madison said in 1788, ‘If men were angels, no Government would be necessary’ (Federalist, no. 51). That is, if all men were angels. But in a world in which all resources are limited, a single non-angel in the commons spoils the environment for all.”

Among several examples Hardin points to is the decline of fisheries worldwide because of fishermen’s belief that they have a right to unlimited fishing in the seas, i.e., the commons.

He writes, too, about pollution: “Even when the shortcomings of the commons are understood, areas remain in which reform is difficult. No one owns the Earth’s atmosphere. Therefore, it is treated as a common dump into which everyone may discharge wastes. Among the unwanted consequences of this behavior are acid rain, the greenhouse effect, and the erosion of the Earth’s protective ozone layer. Industries and even nations are apt to regard the cleansing of industrial discharges as prohibitively expensive. The oceans are also treated as a common dump.”

If all of this analysis rings true to you, then we invite you to join the discussion about what can be done to address the environmental destruction we see around us. In short, we believe that the commons must be regulated. This includes farmers large and small, who while tempted to ignore the impact on the commons when it is in their self interest, must come to accept the need for managed commons.