Freedom Of The Sea Analysis

1) By a “commons”, Hardin refers to a shared resource, such as public land, National Parks, and the seas. One of Hardin’s most prominent example refers to herdsmen on commonly-shared land. Each herdsman will attempt to raise as much cattle as possible, Hardin argues, on the land. However, the land can only sustain a certain number of cattle. The tragedy occurs when each herdsman continues to add more and more cattle, in order to maximize their profit, without thinking about the negative consequences adding more cattle to the land will have. Another prominent example Hardin provides is regarding the “freedom of the seas”. Maritime nations, holding dear the principle of “freedom of the seas”, continue to utilize as many resources from the ocean as possible, without thinking of the effects of using more and more resources. With a variety of countries all …show more content…
Hardin argues that humans have a self desire to use as much of a resource as they please; however, these resources are limited. When humans act in their own mere interests without restriction and use as much as a limited shared resource or commons as they please, then the Tragedy of the Commons occurs. An example of “freedom in a common brings ruin to all” is with the herdsmen. The herdsmen will continue to freely add more of their own cattle to the shared land in order to maximize their gain. However, a tipping point is eventually reached where the land cannot handle more and more cows being allotted to live upon it and utilize its resources, so that the land is eventually depleted of its once-abundant resources and is essentially