Written in 1968, Garrett Hardin presented a compelling formulation of the population problem. In his classic piece, “The Tragedy of the Commons”, a commons is a natural resource shared by many individuals. Shared means that each individual does not have a claim to any part of the resources but rather to the use of a portion of it for his/her own benefits (Hardin, G., 2009).
In society today, there are several tragedies of the commons as described by Hardin and one of the focused attention was the ever increasing population.
Human Overpopulation
Overpopulation is likely the world’s chief concern. Hardin stated that the human population problem was a member of the class of no technical solutions. The population problem cannot be solved in
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With our population increasing rapidly, pollution is a problem of increasing proportions (Spellman, F., 1999). The huge increase in size of the human population have resulted in a substantial degradation of environmental conditions (Birdsall, N., 2003).
Water Pollution. According to the Population Institute, one of the consequences of overpopulation is the pressure that is put on available water resources in order to serve a growing population. Approximately 50% of the worlds’ population will be living in regions around the globe that are considered “water stressed”, either due to lack of it, or poor quality, by the year 2030 (compared to 15% currently).
Water is a fundamental and integral part of human survival. We imbibe it, cook with it, bathe in it, and use it to filter and dispose of sewage. As the global population is expected to keep growing in the coming decades, the negative impact that humans will have on earths finite resources, especially water, will become increasingly apparent as areas of the world will start to experience drastic shortages of water, leading to instability in food production, industry, social order, and political and military
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According to the Center for Biological Diversity, "The largest single threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades to come will be global climate disruption due to the build-up of human-generated greenhouse gases in the
When he is discussing that overpopulating a rich country would just bring ruin to their environment he includes an observation of what occurred in India after having a population of “600 million” (par.33) and says, “The country’s forests are now only a small fraction of what they were three centuries ago and floods and erosion continually destroy the farmland that remains” (par. 33). This is convincing to the audience because it shows something that is truly happening and shows that people are just caring for the food and place to live, but when it comes to thinking how nature will get affected by overpopulation they don’t consider it. It makes the reader, like me think if it happened in India, who says it can’t happen in the United States. It proves that the more rich countries help the poor, the more they will depend on it, instead of taking care of their own land and using the resources it provides. Hardin throughout his article just uses facts and this is seen when he writes, “Though all taxpayers were forced to the cost of P.L.480
From: Mr.Jazayeripour the manager of Mojave Desert community to: The California Environmental Protection Agency Water is one of the necessary sources for organisms to survive in many ways. and did you know that (The United States uses about 346,000 million gallons of fresh water every day. allaboutwater.org-water.facts ) Mojave river, colorado river and underground water are the main sources of water for animals, plants, residential, industrial and agricultural uses. ground-water depletion is primarily causes by sustained groundwater pumping.
In his book, Population Bomb, he argued “through his life that there is an impending doom containing overpopulation and starvation”(Ehrlich 18). Let the facts show that the world has taken the right path toward sustaining life and sending us towards prosperity. In R. Engelman article “Population and Sustainability: Can We Avoid Limiting the Number of People” Engelman’s key argument was that “slowing the rise in human numbers is essential for the planet--but it doesn't require population control”(Engelman 49). Placing a cap on the population will force consequences as
However, the truth-claim of Malthus’s essay remains in the eye of the beholder. One may assume that the decline in population growth means that we have already passed the precipitous point of no return, at which humans have gone too far in their overpopulation to continue life as we know it, but one may also hold reasonable doubts about the existence of such a point. But regardless of one’s interpretation of modern population challenges and whether or not one believes Malthus’s theories to be true, the fact remains that An Essay on the Principle of Population set forth economic theories previously unheard of by the general population. Malthusian economics still poses questions that have had and will continue to have major importance in the coming years, regardless of whether that importance is simply theoretical or
In “The Tragedy of the Commons,” the author, Garrett Hardin, explains how we should deal with environmental issues including but not limited to overpopulation and pollution, by giving us an example of the commons; in this case land that is shared among people. Each person wanted to gain revenue regardless of our narcissistic nature. This leads to the environmental issues that we have today, and the dilemma that the Once Ler created in “The Lorax.” Garrett Hardin, brings up the question, what should we maximize? Should we maximize the space of the commons, or the production of products to compensate for the growing population?
Feral cat populations have skyrocketed over the last few decades, and no one can quite agree on what to do about it. The overpopulation of feral cats pose a danger to birds and other wildlife, along with some risks to humans given the diseases they could possibly carry. Both sides agree something must be done about the feral cat population, but the debate comes in what should be done. For years the solution to the problem was to simply kill the feral cats, but the use of TNR, trap-neuter-return, is becoming more popular. TNR offers the option to shrink the population of feral cats, without causing the death of thousands of kitties.
In 1960, a man named Paul Ehrlich shared his fears of overpopulation in the world through his book called, “The Population Bomb”. He made many predictions about what kind of disasters we would face if drastic measures were not taken. Zero Population Growth became a political movement that wanted to limit births and give rewards to couples without children. However, humanity has managed to survive even with the current population growth. Paul Ehrlich believes that even though his predictions didn’t happen, it doesn’t mean he was wrong.
During the late 1960’s, the world was in a state of anxiety with regards to the growing fear of population explosion and the millions of people that were estimated to starve to death, thanks to Paul R. Ehrlich and his 1968 book, “The Population Bomb”. Contrary to Ehrlich’s theory, Clyde Haberman in his article, “The Unrealized Horrors of Population Explosion” explains that our most threatening population problem is not population growth, but rather the population’s destruction of the planet (Haberman, 2015). Haberman discusses the fact that since the release of Ehrlich’s book we have figured out ways to feed the population thanks to plant scientists like Norman E. Borlaug, but have still been unable to solve other problems such as extreme
Jonathan Swift’s essay, A Modest Proposal, is famous for satirically suggesting that people start selling their babies for food, which would logically solve the overpopulation and starvation problem in the world. Despite this less than feasible solution, overpopulation is a serious problem in the world, given that there are over seven billion people alive currently. The excessive amount of people living in this world has an adverse effect on both society and the environment. The environment has been destroyed by human pollution and is depleted of natural resources due to the sheer amount of materials needed to support such a large population. In fact, many plastic water bottles used by people are discarded as trash and pollute bodies of water (Soechtig & Lindesy, 2009).
Water Pollution is a huge environmental problem that has serious effects on marine habitats, animals, and water quality. BP1: The world's marine habitat has been getting worse because of how bad the pollution has gotten. “ Over 80% of marine pollution comes from land based activities “ (source 5 ). This quote explains how most of the water pollution is caused by human activity. “ Plastic litter does not degrade, can be expected to last in the oceans for hundreds of years “ ( source 6 ).
Overpopulation Overpopulation is a condition that is undesirable. Overpopulation is one of the problems that people concern it to. One of the serious countries facing this problem is China. Reports in China show that it has about 1.4 billion people in this country; it takes about one over seven people of the world population. China is the third largest land after Russia and Canada in the world.
In “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor” (1974), Hardin debates whether rich countries should provide aid to poor countries through food supplies or immigration. Garrett Hardin was a renowned Americans philosopher received his PhD in microbiology from Stanford University. He has written several books and articles that mainly focus on ecology, and throughout his life, has constantly forewarned the world about the risks of overpopulation. Due to his deep understanding of ecology, and due to the intensive research the author has done on this particular topic, Hardin is credible to write an article about this topic. Moreover, Hardin’s main purpose in writing this piece is to persuade the readers, the population of the rich countries and their governments, not to help the poorer countries.
2% of earth’s fresh water is frozen in ice caps; and, only 1% of earth’s fresh water is available to consume. 2. Unfortunately for our planet, supplies of water are running dry at an alarming rate. The world’s population continues to soar; but, that rise in numbers has not been matched by an increase in supplies of fresh water. Let’s talk about what is going on around the world; I will mention to you just a few major cities, and show you how they are dealing with water shortage.
Introduction Overpopulation is the excessive population of an area to the point of overcrowding and it is an undesirable condition in every country where the number of existing human population rises to an extent exceeding the carrying capacity of ecological setting. Overpopulation can be result from an increase in births, an increase in immigration, a decline in mortality rates and other factors that may cause overpopulated environment. Therefore, this can cause influence as lack of the available essential materials for survival like water, shelter, social amenities and other because of the numbers of people might be more than the materials for survival. In such condition, this regularly contributes to environmental deterioration, worsening
Water is the most important component found on the surface of the earth because it is source of life for living creatures. However, water pollution has become a global concern. Water pollution can have several forms from diverse sources. It is expected that there will be a lack of clean water in next few decades due to pollution. Nile river water in Egypt is the focus of attention of many studies due to many reasons.