0:02 hi everybody its mr. Snead's and
0:04 certainly will be starting off unit 5 by
0:07 covering topic 5.1 which is the tragedy
0:09 of the Commons so the tragedy of the
0:11 Commons is this idea that people tend to
0:13 overuse public or shared resources since
0:15 they don't experience the negative
0:17 consequences of doing so it can help us
0:19 understand issues as complex as air and
0:21 water pollution and as simple as why
0:24 public restrooms are so dirty
0:27 our objective for the day is to be able
0:28 to explain the concept of the tragedy of
0:30 the Commons and the essential knowledge
0:32 that we need in order to do this is to
0:33 know that the tragedy of the Commons
0:36 suggests individuals tend to use public
0:38 or shared resources in their own
0:39 self-interest which will deplete these
0:42 resources our suggested science skill
0:44 for the day is concept explanation so
0:46 first we'll define what the tragedy of
0:48 the Commons is the phrase was originally
0:50 coined by a British economist William
0:52 Foster Lloyd who used the over grazing
0:55 of animals unshared public lands as an
0:57 example of when individuals act in their
0:59 own self-interest rather than the
1:01 interest of the greater good but it
1:02 didn't become part of mainstream
1:05 environmentalist theory until 1968 when
1:07 an American ecologist named Garret
1:09 Hardin wrote an essay with the title the
1:11 tragedy of the Commons which drew
1:14 heavily from Lloyds work the basic idea
1:17 is that individuals tend to overuse
1:19 shared resources in their own
1:21 self-interest which will deplete these
1:22 resources now there's two really
1:24 important key points here they have to
1:27 be public resources not private ones
1:29 because then the users would experience
1:30 the negative consequences of their
1:33 overuse and the second one is that the
1:35 resource has to be depleted by this
1:37 overuse so it can't be something that's
1:40 not affected by overuse so we'll take a
1:43 look at some examples now the classic
1:45 example is over grazing and that's
1:48 having too many animals on one patch of
1:49 land as we can see sheep here in the
1:52 picture then there's overfishing which
1:54 is another classic examples of people
1:56 catching so many fish that we deplete
1:58 fish populations and leave none for
2:00 future generations water and air
2:02 pollution of all sorts are another great
2:05 example and then finally we have overuse
2:06 of groundwater which we'll look at a
2:08 little more in depth with a specific
2:11 Michigan example so why does the tragedy
2:13 of the Commons happen while the
2:15 reason is that when no one owns a
2:18 resource no one directly suffers the
2:20 negative consequences of depleting or
2:21 overusing that resource
2:24 the same idea that applies to public
2:26 restrooms applies to public resources so
2:28 if you've ever been in a public restroom
2:30 they're oftentimes quite dirty there's a
2:32 lot of paper towel left on the floor or
2:34 water splashed all over the mirror and
2:36 this is because no one directly feels
2:38 responsible for keeping it clean so the
2:40 people that use it don't have to suffer
2:42 the consequences of it becoming dirty
2:43 because they get to just leave and go
2:45 home on the other hand if they owned
2:47 that restroom if it was in their own
2:48 house they probably treat it a lot
2:50 differently they'd probably keep it a
2:52 lot cleaner for a Michigan example we
2:54 have a private company Nestle who
2:56 recently submitted a request to increase
2:58 the rate of pumping water from awhile in
3:02 Everett Michigan from 250 to 400 gallons
3:05 a minute this is because the groundwater
3:06 that they're pumping is a public shared
3:08 resource so they're not going to suffer
3:10 the negative consequences of overusing
3:12 it if they overuse this ground water
3:14 source and deplete it and it's not
3:16 available for future use they can just
3:18 move and find another site to pump
3:19 groundwater they aren't stuck living
3:21 there what the consequences of having
3:24 depleted that groundwater another cause
3:26 for the tragedy of the Commons is this
3:28 idea that if I don't overuse the
3:30 resource someone else will so we have a
3:32 great comic here to illustrate that we
3:33 have the fisherman on the Left saying
3:36 well there it is the last fish in the
3:38 ocean and he seems kind of concerned
3:40 about this and the guy on the right has
3:42 got a big grin he says woohoo at least
3:44 we beat the Russians and the Spaniards
3:46 to it so that's just kind of illustrates
3:49 this idea that people assume if I don't
3:51 overuse the resource someone else will
3:53 so why not profit from what's left of it
3:56 and then finally there are just
3:59 oftentimes no real direct consequences
4:01 for overusing or depleting a resource we
4:03 see this especially in developing
4:05 nations like Peru here where there's
4:07 hazardous medical waste just being
4:09 dumped into a river
4:11 so without laws that will threaten to
4:16 sue or impose harsh fines on people that
4:18 do this there's less of an incentive to
4:20 care for those publicly shared resources
4:23 so what's the problem with the tragedy
4:24 of the Commons why is this really such a
4:27 big issue well the first issue is that
4:29 things like overfishing can lead to
4:32 total depletion of resources so we have
4:34 this case of the Atlantic cod here which
4:37 was over fished severely in the late 60s
4:39 and the 70s and then we see this huge
4:42 population crash and so fishermen are
4:44 going to lose their income and in parts
4:46 of the world where people really rely on
4:47 fish for food there may even be
4:50 starvation another great example is air
4:52 pollution so air pollution comes from
4:55 driving our cars it comes especially
4:57 from coal-fired power plants to produce
4:59 the electricity we demand and so this is
5:01 going to put things like sulfur dioxide
5:03 into the air and it's gonna be really
5:05 harmful to people's lungs it damages
5:07 their respiratory tract it can make
5:09 asthma and bronchitis worse and over the
5:10 long-run there's going to be increased
5:13 healthcare costs for these people who
5:14 are suffering from these respiratory
5:17 issues another great example is
5:19 pesticide use so farmers put pesticides
5:21 on their crops to increase their yield
5:23 increase the amount of food they produce
5:25 and their profits but these pesticides
5:27 are washed away in the rain they can get
5:29 into local rivers and streams or even
5:31 trickle down to the groundwater and that
5:33 can contaminate groundwater sources that
5:35 people use for drinking it can damage
5:37 fish populations in the streams that
5:39 people rely on for recreation and for
5:41 income and so all of these are what we
5:45 call negative externalities so negative
5:48 externality is a cost that comes with a
5:50 human activity but that isn't
5:52 experienced by the person that's doing
5:54 that activity so the coal-fired power
5:55 plants that are producing a lot of
5:57 sulfur dioxide they don't experience the
6:00 negative healthcare costs of the people
6:01 who have worsened asthma or bronchitis
6:04 or the farmer who sprays pesticides on
6:07 their crops they don't experience the
6:09 negative recreational dollars that are
6:11 lost from downstream communities whose
6:14 fish fish populations suffer and so we
6:16 can see that these negative
6:18 externalities are basically passed on to
6:20 a different person somewhere else and
6:21 that's what we call an externality
6:25 because the cost is externalized think
6:26 of it kind of as like an unintended
6:30 consequence so how do we solve the
6:32 tragedy of the Commons well the first
6:35 concept is to make meats publicly shared
6:37 resources private either by selling them
6:39 to individuals or by having government
6:41 ownership so that someone is response
6:43 for maintaining them and they don't fall
6:45 victim to the tragedy of the Commons
6:47 another way to do this is to impose fees
6:50 or taxes for using the resources so
6:52 examples include having a permit system
6:55 for grazing or forcing logging companies
6:57 to pay a permit to come and log in area
6:59 and that idea is that the more that
7:01 people have to pay per unit of a
7:03 resource they use the more likely they
7:05 are to consider using less and to use it
7:07 more sustainably and then the last
7:10 option is more punitive option this is
7:12 the idea of imposing taxes fines or even
7:14 criminal charges for groups or
7:16 individuals that are polluting shared
7:18 resources especially air soil and water
7:21 so let's look at some examples we have
7:23 the Clean Air Act the Clean Water Act
7:25 and the Safe Drinking Water Act and
7:28 these are all acts that give the EPA the
7:31 power to impose fines penalties on
7:33 companies or individuals that are
7:34 polluting these shared resources in
7:36 terms of grazing we have something
7:38 called the Bureau of Land Management and
7:41 they oversee tons of public rangelands
7:43 in the western United States they
7:46 collect grazing fees from ranchers and
7:48 they also conduct studies on the quality
7:50 of the land and help restore it so that
7:52 it doesn't fall victim to the tragedy of
7:55 the Commons our suggested science
7:58 practice for topic 5.1 today is
8:00 explaining environmental concepts or
8:03 processes so I want you to try to answer
8:05 this practice of RQ says the oceans of
8:06 the world are often referred to as a
8:10 Commons so identify one other Commons
8:12 explain how human activity affects that
8:14 Commons and then propose a solution for
8:18 managing that Commons alright everybody
8:20 thanks for tuning in today don't forget
8:21 to like this video if it was helpful
8:24 subscribe for future apes video updates
8:27 and check out other notes over here to
8:30 the side and as always think like a
