Biologist Garrett James Hardin that states that individual users
acting independently according to their own self-interest behave
contrary to the common good when dealing with a public resource.
This idea is explored further in the children’s book the lorax by
written by the acclaimed children’s book author (and environmental
advocate) Theodor Seuss Geisel (also known as Dr. Suess). The main
point of the tragedy of the commons is that people will act in self-
interest even if it hurts themselves in the long run. Say there is a
pasture where anybody can introduce cattle to graze, logically a
person will introduce …show more content…
Then he confronted by the Lorax, a small odd-looking
creature that “speaks for the trees”. The Lorax pesters the Once-ler
but he just shrugs it off. As time passes his business grows
monumentally and he cuts for trees down destroying the native
ecosystem until there is nothing but a treeless waste land that is no
longer profitable for the Once-ler. The main similarity between the
Lorax and the tragedy of the commons is that both explore how the
over exploitation of a common resource will lead to the ultimate
decline of that resource. In the lorax the resource that is over
exploited are the truffula trees one of the examples listed by Harrdin
is a pasture with no boundaries.
Another major similarity that the tragedy of the commons has with
the Lorax is that both admit that there is no one answer to the
bigger problem of finding a middle ground for the problem of over
exploitation and conservation. In Hardin’s essay, he compares the
problem of self-interest to a game of tick tack toe “How can I win a
game of tick tack toe … it is well known that I cannot if I assume
that my opponent knows the rules of the game”. While there is not …show more content…
I should shut down
my factory, fire a hundred thousand workers is that good economics,
is that sound for the nation”? “I see your point but I wouldn’t know
the answer”.
There is also the fact that both the tragedy of the commons and the
lorax have a strong similarity to real world events where the actions
of people acting independent to the greater good of the people. One
of these such examples was the Great Banks Cod industry which at
one point in time was one of the most profitable fishing areas in the
world. Located of the coast of Newfoundland the grand banks are a
group of underwater plateaus that are located near the Gulf stream
and the Labrador current which creates a perfect environment for
cod. The problem of over exploitation happened quite recently when
the Canadian government subsidized the fishing industry in the area
this flooded money into the fishing industry which made up for the
less fish they were catching, and as scientist warned the Canadian
government of the risk of overfishing the Canadian government did
the most cliché thing and ignored them until in 1972 (the same