Lecture 9: Environmental Ethics II

Announcements

No class on Thursday Nov. 14

Commentary #3 will be ready for pickup on Wednesday, Nov. 13

Deadline for commentary #4 is extended to Tuesday, Nov. 19

A New Question

For now, set aside the question of what has intrinsic moral value

A new question: how should we protect the environment?

“The Tragedy of the Commons”

In a famous article called "The Tragedy of the Commons“ Garrett Hardin presented an argument that many people think has profound implications for how we should protect the environment.

It has also been claimed that his argument can be used to explain the collapse of the North Atlantic Cod Fishery.

Hardin’s Project

Hardin sets out to consider problems like resource depletion & overpopulation.

He argues that the root of these problems is to be found in the idea of a commons.

The Idea of a Commons

A commons is a resource open to all:

"Picture a pasture open to all."

When the situation we live in is not socially stable, the commons may work okay. 

Tribal wars, disease, etc. will keep the number of ‘shepherds’ down.  But, when things are socially stable, trouble begins.

How the Tragedy Occurs

“ ‘As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain.’ He will ask himself, 'What will I gain by adding one more animal to my herd?’ “

He will gain the benefit of having one more animal.

This comes at a cost as well.  The extra sheep will 'use up' a little more of the pasture.  However, that's not a cost our shepherd has to bear on his own.  That costs gets split over all the other shepherds who use the pasture. 

The Trap

"The rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another ....  But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons.  Therein is the tragedy.  Each man is locked in a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit ...

“Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all."

Prisoners’ Dilemmas

The situation described in the Tragedy of the Commons belongs to a family of problems known as Prisoners’ Dilemma problems. 

What they all have in common is that they describe situations in which individual actions, each of them quite rational, collectively lead to an undesirable result. 

The Prisoners’ Dilemma

Suppose Bill and Al are brought in for questioning about some crime.

The police officers doing the questioning put the two men in separate rooms. They present the men with the following options

Neither confesses - no punishment for either one

One confesses but not the other - $100,000 and no jail time to the person who confesses, 15 years to the other person

Both confess - 3 years each

What Should Bill Do?

Suppose that you're Bill and you're looking out just for yourself.

i.e., you don’t wish any harm on Al, but you’re not going to go out of your way to protect him

Suppose you also know that Al is also looking out only for himself.

What should you do?

The Options Again

Neither confesses = no punishment for either one

One confesses but not the other = $100,000 and no jail time to the person who confesses, 15 years to the other person

Both confess = 3 years each

The Answer

You don’t know what Al will do, but you do know there are only 2 possibilities. Suppose:

1. Al confesses.

In this case the best thing to do is to confess. You’ll minimize your jail time.

2. Al doesn’t confess.

In this case the best thing to do is also to confess. You’ll get the money

The Problem

Since Al is also looking out for himself, he’ll also confess, so you'll get 3 years each. 

That's far from the best possible outcome for you.  In fact, it's the third best out of four.

As with the Tragedy of the Commons, being rational doesn't give you a good outcome here.

‘Solving’ the Prisoners’ Dilemma

One suggested solution is to change the situation

Make the situation such that it’s no longer in the prisoners’ interests to betray one another

E.g., we need a ‘godfather’ who’ll see confessing doesn’t pay

Solving the Tragedy of the Commons

The problem is created by the fact that the pasture is a commons.

Arguably, the collapse of the cod stocks happened because the DFO treated the stock as a commons.

The solution is to stop treating the pasture as a commons.

Privatizing the Commons

Instead of 10 herdsmen on one common piece of land.  Give each shepherd exclusive right to one tenth of the pasture.

What good does privatizing it do?

Now all the costs resulting from expanding your stock have to be dealt with by you alone.  Now, a rational man won't expand his flock indefinitely.

The Moral

Hardin draws a number of practical morals from this.

In order to solve pollution problems, the solution isn't always more regulation, sometimes it's privatization.

"Freedom to breed is intolerable."

We should cut down on overseas aid.

Is this convincing?