Josef Elliott

Bio 105

Lab 1 Tragedy of the Commons

1.      What is a "commons?" Give five more examples besides pastures and ponds. Justify your answer by explaining why these areas are a commons.

·       Commons are a place that is open to everyone and are not owned privately by someone.

·       Five examples of a Commons are:

Oceans

Forests

Mountains

Deserts

And parks

2.      What are two solutions to the Tragedy of the Commons?

·       Solution 1: Put a restriction on the amount of resources someone can take.

·       Solution 2: Do things like the fish hatchery in page springs does. That is to raise fish (or other resources) to help replenish the places that are being depleted of their resources.

3.      Describe a situation you have observed where commons have been degraded.

·       To me a tragedy of the commons would be that everyone wants to go to Hawaii and swim on the beaches (which I don’t blame them it beautiful). While I was there I learned that so many people go swimming and put on sunscreen that the oils are coating the reefs and killing the reefs off. This in turn kills the fish that live and depend on the reefs.

(Disney own their own island and they are growing coral to plant by their island to help the coral grow back to help replenish the life that was once there.)

4.      The Tragedy of the Commons considers humans being impacted by this tragedy. How is ecosystem sustainability affected? In your answer, be sure to refer to the definition of the word "sustainability".

·       Well for example we are developing tools to catch more and more fish all the time in the ocean. This has caused a huge decline and even extinction rate in fish. This is affecting us because, we now have to have some regulations on fishing and will need to keep them so we don’t deplete the fish population completely.

5.      Which do think is more important, your individual freedoms or the common environmental good?

·       To me the common environmental good. At this rate we will deplete all of our resources and then no one will be able to survive.