Understanding Nature, Understanding Ourselves

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Understanding Nature, Understanding Ourselves

• How does humanity influence the natural world?
• How does the natural world influence humanity?
• What would the natural world be like with were it
  not influenced by humanity?
• What is the appropriate role for humanity in the
  natural world?

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Understanding Environmental Tragedy

• Today we understand
• How the natural world was developed
• What it consists of
• What processes are at work
• How organisms interact with their environment
• Role of humans in creating and solving
  environmental problems such as resource depletion
  and pollution

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Understanding Environmental Tragedy

• Why do we have environmental problems?
• Garrett Hardin 1970
• The Tragedy of the Commons
• Conflict between the short-term interests of
  individuals and the long-term interest of society
• A tragedy of the commons happens occurs when a
  resource that society owns in common becomes
  depleted or degraded because people use it in an
  unsustainable fashion

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What is a Commons?

• A managed commons is a resource that is shared or
  owned jointly by people
• Pasture
• An unmanaged commons is a resource that is owned
  by many people (or none) that is free for the
  taking
• The atmosphere
• The oceans
• The Chesapeake Bay?

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What is a Natural Resource?

• A natural resource is a naturally occurring
  substance in the environment that people can use
  to improve their situation.
• the grass in a pastureland
• Lakes, rivers
• Forests
• Chesapeake Bay?

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• Laissez-faire thinking says that long term
  interests of all people are best served by
  letting each person pursue his or her own
  personal interests
• Is laissez-faire thinking present in our society
  today? If so, give an example

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Of Cows and Pasturelands

• Economic considerations drive the logic behind
  the concept of tragedy of the commons
• The way people behave when they share a natural
  resource can be explained by the way they
  evaluate costs and benefits
• Important to consider the costs and benefits
  people gain by behaving in a certain way

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Of Cows and Pasturelands

• Rural farming village consisting of 10 families
• Every family starts out with one cow
• There are no limits on the of cows a family can
  put out to pasture
• The pasture can sustain 10 cows/day
• gt 10 cows/day results in overgrazing which causes
  the grasses to degrade
• Grasses degrade, cows produce less milk

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Of Cows and Pasturelands

• Families want or need extra milk
• Family grows
• Desire extra income
• Overgrazing begins to degrade the pastureland
• Production is now far less than 1 gallon/cow
• Economic pressure drives families to keep adding
  cows to the pasture. Families that dont fall
  even farther behind in milk production
• Example of short-term self interests

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Of Cows and Pasturelands

• The pasture is now inhabited by a number of
  starving cows
• Bare soil gets exposed as cows eat roots
• Plodding of hooves compacts the soil so nothing
  else can grow
• The cows weaken and become vulnerable to disease
  and stop producing milk
• The pasture and the village is in a state of ruin
• A tragedy of the commons has occurred
• Benefits are privatized, costs are commonized

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• Commonly owned commons need not degrade if they
  are properly managed
• Who should manage the commons?
• Can we rely on peoples sense of ethics and civic
  duty not to overuse commons for private
  interests?
• Not always clear what proper use of the commons
  means

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A Dinosaur Named Sue

• Dinosaur fossils found on public lands
• Who owns the rights to these fossils?
• Who should decide how the fossils are used?
• Commercial Collectors vs. Scientists
• Commercial collectors
• Fossils belong to all Americans
• Damage fossils
• Fail to record critical information
• Remove fossils from the country
• Withhold important discoveries from
  paleontologists

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• Commercial Collectors (Supporters)
• Collecting should be allowed the same as mining
  and logging on public lands
• Fossils lost to weathering
• Responsible collectors do show their finds to
  scientists

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• In 1992 the FBI entered privately owned Black
  Hills Institute of Geological Research in South
  Dakota
• Seized 10 tons of rock containing the bones of
  Tyrannosaurus rex named Sue
• Collectors for the Institute removed the rocks
  from public lands held in trust for a Sioux
  Native American Tribe
• Was the seizure an abuse of Government power?
• Scientists feared Sue would be sold on the open
  market to the highest bidder
• Judge ruled that Sue belonged to the Sioux
  rancher who was using the land at the time Sue
  was found
• The rancher sold Sue to the highest bidder
• The highest bidder was the Field Museum of
  Natural History in Chicago

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Preventing Environmental Tragedy

• Strategies for preventing common resources from
  degrading
• Control of two important aspects of resources
• Access
• Subtractability

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Controlling Access to Resources

• Always more important when supply is limited
  rather than abundant
• A small pond stocked with fish
• A large lake stocked with fish
• Some resources are easy to control
• a gate to the pastureland
• Others are much harder
• atmosphere
• oceans
• forests
• groundwater

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Controlling Subtractability

• Definition when someone uses a resource they
  subtract from the ability of others to use the
  resource
• Removing fish from a small pond vs. a large lake
• Always more important when supply is limited
  rather than abundant
• How do we manage resources keeping access and
  subtractability in mind?

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Managing Resources

• Appeal to peoples consciences
• requires a person to monitor their own behavior
• Community Management
• neighborhood beach
• Management by Government
• State and National Parks
• Private Management
• an individual will not jeopardize their own
  resource
• They pay the cost of over-exploitation
• Alburg Dunes
• Are corporations an example of privatized
  ownership?

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Management Strategies Do they work?

• Appealing to conscience doesnt work
• Community management
• Having to face your neighbor
• Government management
• land belongs to the people
• layers upon layers of bureaucracy
• private interests influencing government
• Privatization
• One mans junk is anothers treasure
• wetlands, beaches, social justice issues

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The Tragedy of Ocean Fisheries

• Assumption the fishes of the sea are an
  inexhaustible resource
• 1995 data indicate that the majority of the
  worlds fisheries are either in decline or
  commercially depleted
• Example The Grand Banks off the coast of
  Newfoundland
• Movie The Perfect Storm

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• In 1992 Canada closed its commercial fishery in
  Newfoundland
• The closure put more than 30,000 people out of
  work
• In the Pacific Northwest, some species of salmon
  are near extinction. Canada has reduced its
  fishing fleet by 1/3rd and compensated fishermen
  with taxpayer
• Fish catches have declined all over the world

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• Advancements in technology
• electronics, ships, navigation, sonar, mapping
  systems

• Human population growth and accessibility

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Why has the supply of fish declined?

• Over-fishing
• technology removes 90 of some fish populations
  every year
• US fisheries decreased by 40 in 1995
• US government permitted open access to any US
  fishing boat in federal waters
• Fish populations have collapsed
• 70 of commercial species are classified as fully
  exploited, over exploited, or rebuilding from
  past over-harvesting

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Many scientists believe fish can recover if
properly managed

• Possible strategies
• Appealing to conscience
• Government control
• Community management
• fishing dependant communities understand ecology
• Private Control using a quota system
• Others denounce regulations because they infringe
  upon personal freedoms and cause hardships for
  people

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Solutions to many such tragedies will include the
involvement of

• Biologists
• Economists
• Politicians
• Fishermen
• Consumers
• Interested citizens throughout the world