Tragedy of the Commons - Essay Example

(Emission Facts 2011) Environment Impact–a Tragedy of Commons Global warming is one of such effect that has caused due to uninterrupted and prolific consumption of fossil fuel by developed countries for last several decades. The effects of which is now being faced by low lying countries due to rising sea levels and getting large part of their land area submerged in sea. John Vidal (2009) reports, “Migration is the only escape from rising tides of climate change in Bangladesh”. He reports the situation has changed in the last 20 years.

The people of Bangladesh have lost their farmland and many of them have lost their homes. There is no fish in the river and drinking water has become salty. A few years from now many villages will submerge in the sea water. On the other side of Bay of Bengal in India the sea level is rising fast and more than 70,000 people at the Indian coast will required to be evacuated in next 5 years. These people are suffering the tragedy of global warming for which they are not at all responsible as their economic conditions have always been at margin and they have never been a part of any industrial revolution in true sense to get any benefit.

(Vidal, 2009) In another dispatch from Jowit (2010) in Guardian speaks about the environmental damage caused by the world's largest 3000 companies the cost of which is equivalent to the one-third of their profits when the damage done by them is computed into financial terms. The issue is that none of these companies is made to pay for the loss on environment that has created the loss of freshwater, fisheries, and the huge pollution that they have created. Trucost, a London based firm has estimated that the combined damage is worth more than.

The researcher states that Hardin was right, when he said that the issues that fall under ‘Tragedy of Commons’ have no easy solutions to them today. In fact, it asks for change in human behavior and attitudes. In the case of climate change solutions lie at two fronts, that are technical and behavioral. Technical solution lies in using the energy that do not produce the green house gases, such as wind and solar energy, using the energy in an efficient manner, capturing and storing the carbon dioxide gas.

The researcher states that the biggest issue is the green house gases, that is usually generated by these companies that have caused the climate change in all parts of the world. The social impact it has caused due to migration of people from their homeland to other parts within and outside their country. People use large cars that consume high amount of gas creating more green house gases because they think they can afford it but when more people behave in this fashion the environment impact to the society is large, just like the single herdsman thinking who adds one more cattle to the field to get the benefit passing the loss to other herdsman.

It is obvious today, that the benefit goes to the large companies at the cost of others. Hardin has employed the word coercion to direct the individual behavior to attain any societal or environmental goals. In conclusion, the researcher mentiones that in the case of environment too, Hardin’s approach of coercion is a need of time and should be employed rigorously.