Tragedy of The Commons

laws/taxes

Methods: direct production of environmental quality pollution prevention technology command-and-control regulations economic incentives establishment of property rights

community governance

Recognizes that individuals exist within communities, and community control of a commons can be an effective way to protect it from degradation. There are many examples from around the world of communities managing common resources effectively for hundreds or even a thousand years. The boundaries and membership are clearly defined. The rules fit local conditions. The rules are open to modification by participants. Monitoring is effective and affordable. Enforcement relies on graduated sanctions. Conflict resolution is fast and fair. Control is local. Local control is exercised within nested, tiered institutions.

pollution prevention technology (type of law/tax)

developing new technologies that can prevent pollution. Current government support of research into renewable energy technology. This technology is being developed by private companies as well, but they are somewhat dependent on the government for funding since no one company can develop this all on their own.

tragedy of the commons

situation in a shared-resource system where individual users acting independently according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling that resource through their collective action.

the parable and its logic (logic of the commons)

1. Each household has the right to take resources from and/or put wastes into the commons. No one can be excluded from participating in this process. 2. Use of these common resources by a household results in direct personal gain. The costs of resource use are shared by all who participate in the commons. Costs include loss of resources through depletion, destruction, or pollution. The gain to the household from common resource use therefore appears large and the cost very small. 3. Maximizing the use of common resources is thus a rational behavior for the individual, even though it may diminish the resource for all. The result is that individuals' decisions that are rational result in collective behavior that is irrational.

goods

A material that satisfies human wants and provides utility for some purpose.

common pool resource

A type of good consisting of a natural or human-made resource system (e.g. an irrigation system, fishing grounds, pastures, forests, water), whose size or characteristics makes it costly, but not impossible, to exclude people from obtaining benefits from its use. CPRs have potential problems with congestion and overuse because the resource can be diminished

privatization (type of law/tax)

An action by government to divide commons among individual owners, with each asserting control over their own property. This change solves the problem of a commons being non-excludable, so owners then have market incentives to take care of the resource because others cannot use it. But private property is usually only well managed if all costs and benefits actually do accrue to the owner. That is often not true. Not all commons can be privatized either (e.g., the atmosphere). This approach can result in severe inequity in access to needed resources (e.g., expensive drinking water).

commons (open access property)

Any resource that is non-excludable (individuals cannot be effectively excluded from use) and shared by a group of people or used as though it belongs to all. When anyone can use a shared resource simply because one wants or needs to use it, then one is using it.

community governance and its principle

Directly specifies how something is to be done to reduce or prevent environmental impact, and it may either be process-based or output-based. Examples: Power plants can only pollute a certain amount per energy output, all cars must have catalytic converters, a fishing fleet must use a certain type of net, etc. This is the most common type of environmental regulation used to date. Enforcement is particularly critical. If the cost of meeting the regulations is greater than the cost of being caught violating the regulations, then there is little incentive to follow the rules. Pros & cons: Allows good control of specific levels of pollution. Economically inefficient.

cap-and-trade (type of law/tax)

Each company in the region is given a permit for its share of the pollution total. Those that emit less than their quota are allowed to sell their excess capacity to others that exceed their quota. Provides a financial reward for those who reduce pollution the most and gives flexibility to those who have more difficulty. Pros Allows specific control of pollution levels. Economically efficient with low government costs. So economists like them! Cons But it could also be argued: They do not eliminate local "hot spots" of pollution which can be harmful. They imply that you can do what you want as long as you can pay for it, which is not ethically sound. It is based on the premise that there are acceptable amounts of environmental pollution, which some people reject.

economic incentives (type of law/tax)

Economic incentives assign costs to various behaviors to bring them into line with society's best interests. Examples: Taxes on emitted pollution Subsidies for best agricultural practices Deposit-refund systems for beverage bottles, etc. Pros & cons for taxes: Economically efficient. Not good at determining a specific pollution level outcome (e.g., the rich can afford to pollute more).

direct production of environmental quality (type of law/tax)

The government goes in and cleans up or otherwise restores what has been damaged. Example: The Superfund law (CERCLA, 1980) - Government-funded clean up of toxic waste sites when no responsible party can be found to do it. Real, long-term, effective solutions to environmental problems need to be more about prevention than mitigation after the fact, though.

cap

The government sets a limit on the total amount of allowable pollution in a region.

Institutions

The rules, norms, and patterns of behavior that define how members of society interact with one another, tie together the activities and motivations of individuals and shape their choices. They also limit the access of some people to ecosystems and resources they might use.

moral suasion

Use moral suasion of some sort to induce voluntary reduction in resource use . Example: A famous person does a public-service commercial and asks you to save energy, recycle, buy organic foods, stop smoking, not use drugs, etc. Moral suasion alone is not usually very effective because there are often stronger incentives to use the resource. It is more effective in setting broad opinion than in spurring people to any particular action.