Tragedy of the Commons Lab
Procedures:
1. Get into a group of 4 students.
2. Each group starts with 16 fish (m&m’s)
3. YOU CAN’T TALK DURING THE GAME!
3. You will “fish” with 2 straws. (figure out how to do it!)
4. Each fish has a “current market value” of $5.00 per fish.
5. Each student MUST catch one fish per season in order to stay in business; it is up to you to decide how many, beyond the required one you want to catch.
6. Each fishing season will last 20 seconds.
Data: Complete the following
Fisherperson / Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3 / Year 4Total for Group
Total Fish Harvest
Total Income
Background Information:
One cause of environmental degradation is the overuse of common-property resources, which are owned by no one but are available to all users free of charge. Most are potentially renewable. Examples include clean air, the open ocean and its fish, migratory birds, Antarctica, gases of the lower atmosphere, the ozone content of the stratosphere, and space. In 1968, biologist Garrett Harden called the degradation of common-property resources the tragedy of the commons. It happens because the user reasons, “if I don’t use this resource, someone else will. The little bit I use or pollute is not enough to matter.” With only a few users, this logic works. However, the cumulative effect of many people trying to exploit a common-property resource eventually exhausts or ruins it. Then no one can benefit from it, and therein lies the tragedy. (Miller text)
Tragedy of the Commons
Discussion Questions
1.Did anyone in your group take too many fish? How did that make you feel? Did everyone try to take as many as possible? Why or Why not? Does society reward those with the “most”?
2. Did anyone sacrifice the # of fish, for the good of the community? Why or why not? Does society ever reward that type of person?
3.In Game two... how did your strategy change, if at all? Does it make a difference to know what the rewards are?
4. Is it possible to maximize the number of fish caught/person AND the number of fish remaining in the pond at the same time? Why or Why not?
5.Think of a local commons that you are familiar with. [parking lots, dorm social rooms, bathrooms, bookstalls, etc.] Do similar situations arise? Explain. HOW might those problems be solved?
6. What are some natural resources that are common resources?
7.What are the global commons? Are these being used wisely? Why or why not?
8. What can people do to use these resources most wisely?