Tragedy of the Commons
Purpose:
The purpose of the lab was to examine the problem of unsustainable fishing and find more sustainable methods that would allow fishing to continue without depleting the population.
Introduction:
As the world’s population continues to grow, industries that provide food are pressured to obtain more and more food products to meet the demand. Each company seeks to maximize its gain and considers the advantages and disadvantages of supplying more goods to the public. (Hardin, 1969) The advantage of potentially increasing profits outweighs the disadvantage of depleting the resource at an unsustainable rate. In other words, the industries seek to increase the amount of resources at their disposal without restraint in a world that is limited. (Hardin) With this logic, the ethics of …show more content…
The guide informs the participants that there is to be no talking during the seasons and that at least two fish must be caught for a participant to survive and continue to the next season. During the first season one subject fished for ten seconds using only their straw to remove the goldfish from the plate. At the end of the season, each of the remaining fish reproduced one additional fish to refill the plate with up to a total of twenty fish. Each season, after the remaining fished reproduced, an additional subject was added and given ten seconds to retrieve goldfish from the plate. After the seasons were completed the subjects could communicate before starting another trial. In another variation of this experiment, any extra fish the participant caught that was not needed for survival could be used to upgrade the fishing technology and make it easier to catch more the following turn. Also, a variation that placed a higher value on the purple fish, and a variation in which the subjects continued fishing until the goldfish ran out were
Purpose:
The purpose of the lab was to examine the problem of unsustainable fishing and find more sustainable methods that would allow fishing to continue without depleting the population.
Introduction:
As the world’s population continues to grow, industries that provide food are pressured to obtain more and more food products to meet the demand. Each company seeks to maximize its gain and considers the advantages and disadvantages of supplying more goods to the public. (Hardin, 1969) The advantage of potentially increasing profits outweighs the disadvantage of depleting the resource at an unsustainable rate. In other words, the industries seek to increase the amount of resources at their disposal without restraint in a world that is limited. (Hardin) With this logic, the ethics of …show more content…
The guide informs the participants that there is to be no talking during the seasons and that at least two fish must be caught for a participant to survive and continue to the next season. During the first season one subject fished for ten seconds using only their straw to remove the goldfish from the plate. At the end of the season, each of the remaining fish reproduced one additional fish to refill the plate with up to a total of twenty fish. Each season, after the remaining fished reproduced, an additional subject was added and given ten seconds to retrieve goldfish from the plate. After the seasons were completed the subjects could communicate before starting another trial. In another variation of this experiment, any extra fish the participant caught that was not needed for survival could be used to upgrade the fishing technology and make it easier to catch more the following turn. Also, a variation that placed a higher value on the purple fish, and a variation in which the subjects continued fishing until the goldfish ran out were