Ethical Obligations in a Tragedy of the Commons
- 1 August 2003
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Environmental Values
- Vol. 12 (3), 271-287
- https://doi.org/10.3197/096327103129341324
Abstract
When people use a resource without a co-ordinated plan the result is often a tragedy of the commons in which the resource is depleted. Many environmental resources display the characteristics of a developing tragedy of the commons. Many believe that each person is ethically obligated to reduce use of the commons to the sustainable level. I argue that this is mistaken. In a tragedy of the commons there is no reasonable expectation that individual, voluntary action will succeed. Our obligation is not fruitlessly to reduce individual use, but to support a collective agreement to reduce everyone's use to the sustainable level.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Governing the CommonsPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1990
- The Tragedy of the CommonsScience, 1968