“The tragedy of the commons as a food basket is averted by private property, or something formally like it. But the air and waters surrounding us cannot readily be fenced, and so the tragedy of the commons as a cesspool must be prevented by different means, by coercive laws or taxing devices that make it cheaper for the polluter to treat his pollutants than to discharge them untreated. We have not progressed as far with the solution of this problem as we have with the first. Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution. The owner of a factory on the bank of a stream - whose property extends to the middle of the stream - often has difficulty seeing why it is not his natural right to muddy the waters flowing past his door. The law, always behind times, requires elaborate stitching and fitting to adapt it to this newly perceived aspect of the commons.
“The pollution problem is a consequence of population. It did not much matter how a lonely American frontiersman disposed of his waste. "Flowing water purifies itself every ten miles," my grandfather used to say, and the myth was near enough to the truth when he was a boy, for there were not too many people. But as population became denser, the natural chemical and biological recycling processes became overloaded, calling for a redefinition of property rights.”
How to Legislate Temperance?
Hardin continued, “Analysis of the pollution problem as a function of population density uncovers a not generally recognized principle of morality, namely “The” morality of an act is a function of the state of the system at the time it is performed. Using the commons as a cesspool does not harm the general public under frontier conditions, because there is no public; the same behavior in a metropolis is unbearable. A hundred and fifty years ago a plainsman could kill an American bison, cut out only the tongue for his dinner, and discard the rest of the animal. He was not in any important sense being wasteful. Today, with only a few bison left, we would be appalled at such behavior.
“In passing, it is worth noting that the morality of an act cannot be determined from a photograph. One does not know whether a man killing an elephant or setting fire to the grassland is harming others until he knows the total system in which his act appears. "One picture is worth a thousand words," said an ancient Chinese, but it may take ten thousand words to validate it. It is as tempting to ecologists as it is to reformers in general to try to persuade others by way of the photographic shortcut. But the essence of an argument cannot be photographed. It must be presented rationally - in words.”
Weekly newspaper and TV reports illustrate our dilemma for example: “60 percent in nation live in dirty air…186 million Americans at risk,” Denver Post, April 29, 2009 by Noaki Schwartz.
Yet, we ignore the core cause. We blissfully go about our business as if we cannot possibly end up like China. If you read Clugston’s work, you will understand the dilemma. Our present Titanic-like course, driven by relentless immigration, must be changed. If we fail to correct it, Mother Nature will correct it for us—rather harshly.
Part 3: Freedom to Breed
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