Anger Over Use of Common Resources
What an interesting coincidence to read about the torching of a new home development in San Diego and Hummer SUVs in the San Gabriel Valley and then read the obituary of Garrett Hardin, the distinguished UC Santa Barbara ecologist (Sept. 20). Hardin’s 1968 essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” clarified the inevitability of tragic circumstances if individuals each approach commonly held, finite resources as if they were inexhaustible. Might the radically idealistic members of the Earth Liberation Front who claim a role in these crimes be canaries in the coal mine for the tragic events Hardin predicted?
Kevin Patrick
Del Mar
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