Tragedy of the Common, Clearcutting, and
Green Revolution
Tragedy of the Commons (TOC): Theory that common shared resources will
be overused and depleted. In 1968 Garrett Hardin explains that participants
in this resource sharing will take more and more of the resource given that it
serves their cause. Hardin used the example of field open to herders or
farmers, in which the addition of animals directly leads to increases in profit.
This overuse of resources leads to overgrazing, which ultimately destroys the
pasture for all herders.
From here: The tragedy of the commons suggests that individuals
will use shared resources in their own self-interest rather than in
keeping with the common good, thereby depleting the resources.
Example: Overgrazing, Overfishing, Water and Air pollution,
Overuse of groundwater.
Why does it happen?
When no one person or group owns the land, no one feels
responsible for maintaining it, and no one directly suffers the cost
of depleting, degrading or overusing it. or
People assume others will overuse the resource if they don’t. or
There is no penalty for overusing, degrading, polluting many public
resources.
Example problems caused by Tragedy of the Commons
The world’s oceans are a common resource that is often
overfished, which results in fishery collapse, such as the case with
Atlantic Cod. This causes lost income for fishermen, and potentially
even starvation in areas of the world heavily dependent on fish as
a food source.
Air pollution, comes from a variety of sources, including coal fired
power plants. Coal fire plants emit particulate matter and sulfur
dioxide, which are respiratory irritants that can exacerbate asthma,
bronchitis, and cause increased healthcare costs.
Farmers use pesticides to increase their yields, or the productivity
of their crops, but pesticides can runoff land by heavy rains and
enter nearby bodies of water or groundwater sources.
Externalities: Negative costs associated with human actions that aren’t
accounted for in the price.
From here: We call these negative outcomes negative externalities,
because they are costs that are negative costs of human actions
that are externalized to someone else, usually the public or the
taxpayer.
The increased cost individuals pay for health care as a result of air
pollution from factories and power plants is not paid for by the
power plants, it is externalized to the people who suffer from the
worsened asthma and bronchitis, and in reality, can be passed to
the American taxpayer since some of the federal budget is directed
to health care costs.
Solutions for the Tragedy of the Commons
One solution is private or government ownership of land and other
resources. If an individual purchases the land, or the government
oversees its use, less degradation is likely because people
generally take better care of their own things, as they suffer the
consequences of ruining them.
Government can impose fees or taxes for use of a resource (permit
fees to graze cattle on public land, logging fees to the government,
discharge permits) or a license to cut down trees in government
owned forests.
Government can pass laws that impose additional taxes, fines, or
even criminal charges to companies or individuals that pollute
shared air, soil, or water resources.
Examples: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act.
In the case of rangelands, which is land used for grazing of
livestock, the BLM or Bureau of Land Management, collects grazing
fees from ranchers, and monitors the state of rangelands in order
to prevent and repair the effects of overgrazing
Clearcutting
The process of cutting down all the trees in an area at once.
Economically efficient and profitable, but degrading to the
ecosystem.
Soil Erosion: Caused by loss of stabilizing root structure or by Removes soil
organic matter and nutrients from forest resulting in deposits sediments in
local streams leading to Warms water and makes it more turbid (cloudy).
From here Consequences of clear-cutting:
1.
I. Increases wind and water erosion, which causes the loss of soil and
nutrients.
II. Erosion also adds silt and sediment to nearby streams, which
harms aquatic populations.
III. Clear-cutting also increases the amount of sunlight that reaches
rivers and streams, which raises water temperatures that can
adversely affect certain aquatic species.
selective cutting: cutting down only some trees in a forest and leaving a mix
of tree sizes and species behind. Less degrading to the ecosystem.
From here: Since the habitat isn’t being clear‐cut, it does preserve
some biodiversity by allowing some of the species to survive in the
fragmented areas of the forest. Additionally the remaining trees
will reduce soil erosion, Also the remaining forest will help with
cooling climate resulting from transpiration from trees.
Flooding and Landslides
Clear-cutting can be economically advantageous but leads to soil
erosion, increased soil and stream temperatures, and flooding. In
addition, the slopes are prone to dangerous mudslides.
The environmental impact of selective cutting is less extensive
than that of clear-cutting. However, many of the negative
environmental impacts associated with logging remain the same.
For example, whether a company uses clear-cutting of selective
cutting, it will need to construct logging roads to carry equipment
and workers into the area that will be harvested. These roads
fragment the forest habitat, which affects species diversity, and
compact the soil, which causes nutrient loss and reduction in water
infiltration.
Tree Plantations
large areas typically planted with a single rapidly growing tree
species planted and harvested continually.
Consequences of Tree plantation
1.
I. Lowers Biodiversity; as biodiverse, mature forests are replaced with
single species forests which results in Less habitat diversity for
other organisms leading to less species diversity as there will be
less food and shelter available to other organisms.
II. These same-ages stands can be easily clear-cut for commercial
purposes, such as pulp and wood, and then replanted. Because of
this cycle of planting and harvesting, tree plantations never
develop into mature, ecologically diverse forests. If too many
planting and harvesting cycles occur, the soil may become
depleted of important nutrients such as calcium.
Forest Benefits
1.
I. Filtering of Air Pollutants as stomata remove VOCs (Volatile Organic
Compounds), NO2, PM (Particulate Matter) from air & store in tree.
II. Removal and storage of CO2 from atmosphere as trees take in
carbon dioxide for photosynthesis to produce sugar.
III. Habitat for organisms as many organisms live in forest.
Deforestation Consequences
Forests contain trees that absorb pollutants and store carbon
dioxide. Harvesting the forest may also release carbon from the
soil that would otherwise have remained buried in the A and B
horizons.
Slash & burn: method of clearing land for agriculture by cutting
trees and burning them releases CO2, N2O and water vapor into the
atmosphere. From here: The cutting and burning of trees releases
carbon dioxide and contributes to climate change. The
CO2 released from the burned wood is not balanced by
photosynthetic carbon fixation (storage) that would occur in new
tree growth.
The Green Revolution Shift in agriculture away from small, family operated
farms to large, industrial agribusiness. The Green Revolution results in great
increased efficiency of lands short-term profitability, and food supply.
(Decreased world hunger and increased carrying capacity for humans).
From here: agriculture practices that are considered a part of the
Green Revolution are; increased use of GMOs, irrigation, fertilizers,
and pesticides.
However; The Green Revolution has negative consequences like
soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and contamination of ground and
surface water.
Increased use of mechanization, GMOs, irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides
1.
I. Greatly increases efficiency of lands, short-term profitability, and
food supply.
II. Decreased world hunger and increased earth’s carrying capacity
for humans.
III. Bring negative Consequences such as soil erosion, biodiversity loss,
ground and surface water contamination.
Mechanization: Use of machines such as tractors, combines, irrigators, etc. in
agriculture. Replaced human labor and increased reliance on Fossil fuels as it
greatly increased farm profits and yield.
Negative consequences: Produce green house gases since machines often
run of fossil fuels. Machines also disturb the soil often by compacting the soil,
making it more difficult for it to absorb water and thus more vulnerable to
erosion.
High-Yield Variety (HYV) Crops
Hybrid, or genetically modified crops that produce a higher yield
(amount of crop produced per unit area). Made by cross pollinating
different species, or parent plants, with ideal traits.
Example: Increased yield and food stability in regions previously
prone to famine such as India, Pakistan, Mexico.
GMOs: Stands for genetically modified organisms, which are crops that have
new genes “spliced” into their genome.
GMOs Can directly modify crops so that they have traits like being drought or
pest resistant, or have faster growth and larger fruit or grain.
However, GMOs greatly increases yield but reduces genetic diversity so
susceptibility to some pests and disease is greatly increased.
Ex: Bt corn has been modified with a gene from soil bacteria
(Bacillus thuringiensis) to produce a protein that kills and controls
insect damage to the corn.
Synthetic Fertilizer (made through Fossil Fuels combustions): Man made
synthetic chemicals that contain essential nutrients such as nitrates and
phosphates added to the soil to increase crop yields.
Increases growth and yield but can lead to excessive nutrient use, leading to
nutrients being washed off into nearby bodies of water and cause cultural
eutrophication.
Irrigation: Collection and distribution of water to agricultural crops. Often
drawn out of aquifers which depletes them; over-irrigation can cause soil
erosion or water logging of soil. From here, Irrigation results in: Drawing
water from underground or nearby surface waters and distributing it onto
fields to increase plant growth. Also, Made agriculture possible in many areas
on earth that were naturally too dry. However, it can deplete groundwater
sources and can lead to overwatering crops which can waterlog soil and
cause soil salinization.
Pesticides: Chemicals sprayed on crops that kill weeds, insects, rodents, and
other pests that eat or damage crops.
From here, Pesticides results in fewer plants lost to pests. However, Excess
pesticides can be washed off in runoffs and harm non-target species in local
soils or waters.
Example:
1.
I. DDT thinned shells of bird eggs, especially eagles.
II. Atrazine turns amphibians and fish intersex.