Question

Tragedy of the commons

Garrett Harding discusses how human population growth is a tragedy of the commons. What does he mean? In reproduction what is in the best interest of the individual what is in the best interest of the population?

Answer 1

The tragedy of the commons is basically an economic theory of a condition within a shared-resource system where individual users who act independently for their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling the resource through their collective action. In reproduction every individual aims to pass on its genes to the next generation. Hence an individual will try best to pass its own gene will not give priority to the community. Example, case of alpha males in sea lions where only the alpha male mates with female and other males are not allowed in the group. But considering the interest of the population, population will collectively act to prevent the extinction of the species. They will protect the females with eggs and also the young ones. Example, in honey bees not all bees are capable of breeding. The queen bee alone lays hundreds of eggs. Hence the worker bee puts in collective efforts to protect and nurture queen bee. To sum up, individual will focus on passing its genes to the next generation while population works to prevent extinction.