The Lorax And The Easter Island: The Tragedy Of The Commons

The tragedy of the commons is a situation in which a publicly owned resource is exploited to such an extent that the resource is ruined. This means that users of the resource can no longer benefit from it. A uniform idea in the tragedy of the commons is that each person does not weigh the effect of their exploitation of the resource enough, resulting in the resource being over-exploited and eventually being destroyed. Cooperation, motives, and end results are three different focuses which describe how the Lorax and the Easter Island case study are examples of a tragedy of the commons. The tragedy of the commons can be seen In The Lorax where the Once-ler harvests a whole forest of truffula trees, taking advantage of the public resource. The Lorax, who speaks on behalf of the trees, hopes the Once-ler will halt his destructive behavior. …show more content…
The damage the Once-ler created caused wildlife in the truffula forest to be forced to find shelter elsewhere. Easter Island also faced similar effects in that its species of birds were forced to leave. Before construction began, the island was home to many species of birds, Pakandam says, “The forest supported a range of up to twenty-five species of sea birds“ (13). The loss of natural resources on Easter Island not only led to a loss of wildlife, but also led to the demise of the people living on the island. “As the population moved beyond the carrying capacity, overuse resulted in a gradual dwindling of resources since there would not be sufficient time for trees to regenerate and birds and other species would be over-hunted” (Pakandam 16-17). Small numbers of resources would lead to a lot more competition between tribes, resulting in an even faster rate of death for the inhabitants of Easter Island. This is an example of how an environment can only support a maximum number of organisms. Hardin stated, “A finite world can support only a finite population”