When surface water levels are low, farmers have long turned to groundwater as an important, and seemingly limitless, resource to sustain their crops. However, the growing human population and the improvements in technology, which make groundwater pumping easier and more widespread, are raising major concerns for groundwater depletion. The ongoing drought has exacerbated the current situation to a critical level. Groundwater levels have dropped hundreds of feet over the past few years, and it may take hundreds of years for an aquifer to replenish. The groundwater crisis is a prime example of what Garrett Hardin talks about in his essay, The Tragedy of the Commons, which explains how overuse of a shared resource can have detrimental effects for …show more content…
Due to its inevitable exploitation by society, this resource eventually becomes exhausted, leading to what Hardin calls the tragedy of the commons. The groundwater supply perfectly represents a commons as Hardin defines it. According to the National Groundwater Association, groundwater is the world’s most extracted raw material with an estimated withdrawal rate of 982 km3/year, 60% of which is used for agriculture worldwide. In the United States, the High Plains Aquifer System turned the once dry Great Plains into arable and profitable farmland, and Midwestern farmers have depended on this aquifer for decades. In California, farmers rely on groundwater as a strategic reserve during years of drought. A key point in Hardin’s definition of a commons is its unregulated nature, which makes it susceptible to exploitation. Groundwater pumping is still highly unregulated. Most California landowners are able to drill water wells without having to obtain permission from the government. In addition, it is not required for users to report how much they are pumping, and drilling records are highly restricted to the public (Nijhuis, 2014). Leading scientists postulate that without changes to current irrigation trends, nearly 70% of the resource could be depleted in the next half century, and once depleted, an “aquifer could take anywhere from 500 to 1,300 …show more content…
A rational human being will make a decision based on the relative weight of the costs and benefits to him or herself, and a self-interested person will disregard the effects of that decision on other people. Thus, when taking into account the nature of a commons, it is in the individual’s best interest to use the resource since all of the benefits are bestowed upon the user, while the costs fall upon all of society. This self-serving behavior is evidently detrimental to the collective interest. If every man were to act in a rational, self-interested manner, each using the commons without regards to the consequences, the result will be the ultimate devastation of the resource they all rely on. Therefore, it is in the interest of the community as a whole to preserve the commons. With regards to groundwater usage, farmers typically conclude that the benefits of growing more crops and earning more profit outweigh the costs of extracting more water from the basin and risking groundwater depletion. The price of corn has tripled since 2002 due to a rising demand for biofuels. Corn, a water-intensive crop, needs an average of 14 inches per acre to grow .Yet, despite this, “farmers have responded by increasing the acreage of irrigated cornfields by nearly a fifth” (Wines,
Wealthy individuals and large corporations are purchasing the water rights for some of the US and even the world’s biggest aquifers. Among these individuals is oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens who believes water or “blue gold” is the new oil. Located in the Texas panhandle, Roberts County sits above the biggest underground aquifer in the US. The Ogallala Aquifer stretches from the Texas all the way up into South Dakota. Pickens has been buying up land and is now the largest landowner in the county with some 68,000 acres. As well as the water rights that allow him to personally pump up to half of the Ogallala Aquifer which he plans to sell back to residents and nearby counties in need, for a profit of course. “Pickens owns more water than any other individual in the U.S. and is looking to control even more.” Water is finite and shortages are sure to come in the future. Water just like any other scarcity will make for an excellent investment opportunity. Pickens and Mesa Water are acquiring a sufficient amount water rights and political power to turn America’s heartland into a dustbowl.
Farmers and ranchers who own water rights should have their water amount filled earlier in order to facilitate themselves with the proper amount of water. They should not be restricted to a smaller prearranged amount of water each year. Water us...
“The Tragedy of the Commons” written by Garret Hardin explains how the human population is degrading the environment. When Hardin refers to commons he is talking about a resource that is owned by no one and used by a group of people. Some examples of commons include the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the oceans we fish. The tragedy is that people don’t look at the bigger picture; the over use of commons for our own personal benefit leads to the destruction or extinction of these commons. For example if one fisherman wants to fish the oceans as much as possible that’s fine, but now imagine if every fisherman wants to fish the oceans as much as they can, this is one example of a common being destroyed by the human population. The fishing lab we did the other day is a good example Tragedy of the Commons. Every student was placed into groups of four, each group received a bowl (which represented the ocean,) and 20 M&M’s (which represented 20 fish; salmon.) Ms.Engen told the class it was a competition but what she did not say is that if we catch all our “M&M’s” we will not receiv...
On the heart (center) of California is a flat area with miles and miles of farms and up to 230 different crops. The central valley agriculture is essential to the United States; it not only delivers almost half of the produce but also helps the economy by also giving more job opportunities (California Department of food and agriculture, 2014). Many families depend on the central valley agriculture to survive economically in the United States. It is a well-known fact that rain and snows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains are a very important element in the central valley. No rain in the central valley can cause many devastating issues to occur quickly. Recently in the year of 2013 California received less rainfall than years before. The small amount of water the central valley is receiving is harming not only to the land but humans and animals as well. It’s destroying the habitats of animals with forest fires caused from the dry spells occurring. The central valley is going through a drought, so much that around this time of year the central valley usually accumulates enough rain for the necessities in the valley, agriculture for example. This year, however, has been different, the central valley hasn’t received enough water and this has caused a drought in the valley. Water is an important element in this world for not only human life, but for the environment in general, a shortage of water supply can bring issues to the environment and those living in it. The central valley holds the largest percent of class one soil, not only that, the valley grows a third of all the produce being grown in the United States, that’s more than 230 crops that are being grown in the central valley. However, this drought isn’t only affecting the resident...
In Part I, Moral Problems, Greene relates Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” to compare individualistic and collectivistic interests. In the “Tragedy of the Commons”, a single group of herders shares a hypothetical common pasture. Hardin posits that, were everyone to act for his or her individual self-interests, the pasture would be eroded and nothing would be left (19). Collective interests should triumph over individual interests whenever possible (24).
The tragedy of the commons is a very unfortunate and very real thing. It occurs whenever everyone takes a little bit of a limited resource repeatedly. The result of this is that all the resources are gone. In The Lorax, the Once-ler cuts down all the truffula trees in the area to make thneeds (The Lorax). When all the trees are gone, the business shuts down and all the animals are forced to leave (The Lorax). The factories polluted the air and made the area unsafe to live in (The Lorax). This is a perfect example of a tragedy of the commons. A similar event happened in Easter Island. Tribes started inhabiting the area and began using the trees to build houses and eat food from them (Easter Island). Eventually all the trees are gone, and the society resorted to cannibalism and war because there was no food (Easter Island). Garrett Hardin states in his essay that maximimizing population does not maximize goods (Hardin). In this essay, both tragedies of the commons will be compared and will be examined to see how they could have been prevented.
Hardin uses the example of a farmer never letting too many cattle into his pasture. The farmer knows the maximum capacity of his pasture and if he exceeds that amount tragedies can occur such as erosion and weeds. This farmer does not suffer as much as a farmer who uses his pasture as a commons, letting it overload. Hardin is saying the United States should be more like the selfish farmer in regards to immigration. Some everyday commons Hardin uses as examples are air, water, and land. As our population increases our air is becoming more polluted, oceans are becoming unlivable environments, and resources are becoming scarce. We give these commons to everyone, not considering the consequences of doing
For about five years California has experienced above average temperatures and a lack of rain. This lack of rain and snowfall has caused California to become increasingly dry, starting arguments over whose right to water is more important and who needs to be more mindful with their use of water. Farming in California truly began during the gold rush when water was redirected to land where food was grown for those looking for gold (Siegler, 2015). The farmers that have stayed on that land now have senior water rights (“Water wars”, 2015). Farmers that settled their land before 1914 are those with senior water rights (Terrell, 2015). Governor Jerry Brown has called for a cut in water use by one-quarter percent to people living
Although the United States is secure for now in our water sources, there could be trouble in our distant future. The USGS water science school website states, that as of 2013 Rhode Island has the most water out of all of the states in the US with 17% of the state being made up of water. New Mexico has the least water at 0.2%. Due to the geographical position of the US, this is a historical pattern in America; the Western half in general has less water than the Eastern half. Places like New Mexico, California, Nevada, and the western part of Texas have had to enforce strict water conservation and cut back drastically on their uses of water. These acts have been essential in order to ensure they have enough water for simple necessities. The sources of these trials in the west are largely contributed to two factors, climate change and fracking. Clim...
Long ago, the middle of the North American continent was a treeless prairie covered by tall grasses and roaming buffalo. When European settlers came, they called this area the Great American Desert. Today, this "desert" is covered with fields of wheat, corn, and alfalfa made possible by center-pivot irrigation. My grandfather used to sell center-pivot systems and when my family drove to my grandparent's home in Nebraska, we would count how many "sprinklers" were watering each section of land. At the time, I didn't know that this water was being pumped from somethng called the Ogallala Aquifer, a huge underground water supply. Throughout the years, this aquifer has made the Great American Desert one of the best farming areas in the world. Unfortunately, the Ogallala Aquifer's future as a valuable resource is in jeopardy, unless citizens of the Plains states reduce their water consumption.
This would handicap low income residents and independent farmers when trying to pay their water bills. Larger farming monopolies such as Monsanto would be able to afford the higher price, and buy out other farming competition. In addition, larger monopolies do not have the incentive to switch over to water conserving irrigation techniques, leading them to rely on independent less regulated wells in addition to the water the state designates for them. Excessive groundwater pumping could further decrease the water table level, cause more ground level subsidence, saltwater intrusion, increase drought in neighboring areas, increases risk for sinkholes, and cause a deficiency of groundwater available to surrounding farms and communities. If it reached an extreme enough level, they could be investigated for an environmental justice infringement for damages to the environment as well as abusing the shared natural
The Tragedy of the Commons “is a problem that occurs when individuals exploit a shared resource to the extent that demand overwhelms supply and the resource becomes unavailable to some or all” (Wigmore, 2013, August). He explains if by using an example of herdsman caring for their cattle in a common land owned by others. Everyone in the land have the same number of cattle they are allowed to have. If one herdsman was being self-centered things and had more cattle because he was thinking of his needs would then damage the community by “overloading it, erosion set in, weeds take over, and he loses the use of the pasture. He would just worry about his goals now and not the overall outcome which not only affected him, but the other herdsmen as well. (Hardin, 1974,
Postel, S.L., G.C. Daily and P.R. Ehrlich. 1996. Human appropriation of renewable fresh water. Science 271:785
The problem of water scarcity has increasingly spread throughout the world as of yet, The UN reports that within the next half- century up to 7 billion people in 60 countries which is more than the whole present population will face water scarcity (Sawin “Water Scarcity could Overwhelm the Next Generation”). As well the demand for freshwater has tripled over the past 50 years, and is continuing to rise as a result of population growth and economic development. 70% of this demand derives from agriculture which shows the influence of water on food supply globally as well not just drinking water (Sawin “Water Scarcity could overwhelm the Next Generation”). But increasing water use is not just a matter of the greater number of people needing it to drink and eat; it also comes from pollution and misuse of water supplies, by either dumping or runoff of bacteria or chemicals into water. This also “causes other pollutions as well such as soil and air pollution, accelerating wetland damage and human caused global warming” (Smith and Thomassey 25). According to UN report, recent estimates suggest that climate change will account for about 20 percent of the increase in global water scarcity in coming decades.
“Water is the lifeblood of this planet. Every time a good is bought or sold there is a virtual exchange of water. Every time we interact with water, we change it, redirect it, or otherwise alter its state. We have never learned how to efficiently manage water.”(Cluckie, 2009) Ian Cluckie, Professor of Hydrology and Water Management, emphasizes the fact that humans can’t survive without water. Although water is a renewable resource that can replenish under hydrological cycles, our intervention has interrupted its natural cycle causing its supply to decrease.(Cluckie, 2009)