tragedy of commons
Collective resource depletion
The tragedy of the commons describes a situation where individuals acting in their own self-interest deplete or destroy a shared resource, even when it harms everyone including themselves.
The classic example is herders overgrazing common pastureland until it's ruined for all.
The concept applies broadly to environmental problems, overfishing, and other collective action failures: Climate change is the ultimate tragedy of the commons.
- overgrazingExcessive pasture consumption
- depletionReduction of supply
- sharedHeld in common
- pastureGrazing ground for livestock
- overfishingUnsustainable marine harvest
fish stocks · collective · resource · exploitation · scarcity · herd · carrying capacity · free rider problem · selfish · exhaustion · public · public goods · grazing · cattle · ruin · Hardin · cooperative · dilemma
- economic problemsmarket failure, recession, inflation, deflation, stagflation
- paradoxescatch-22, Zeno's paradox, Zeno's paradoxes, causal loop, bootstrap paradox
- economicssupply and demand, inflation, GDP, GNP, gross domestic product
- green economicsgreen economy, carbon tax, emissions trading, cap and trade, carbon credits
- property rightsownership, property rights, private property, real property, title
tragedy, tragedies, tragic, tragically, tragicomedy, tragicomic, common, commons, commonly