Transcript IF I DON’T USE IT SOMEONE ELSE WILL

The Concept of the Commons
• Cities, Industries and Farmers can dump
into the Lakes because it minimizes their
costs
• They receive the benefit
• Dilution and water movement mean that the
problems are shared by all, not just the
offender
External Diseconomies
• The market overlooks what can be termed
external diseconomies
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The full social costs are not taken into
consideration by the industry because they
are paid for by society at large
Normally elsewhere in the economy
• Polluting industries do not pay for the
complete costs of water filtration plants,
- taxpayers do
• The firms contribute but not to the true
extent of their contribution to the problem
• The costs of cleaning up wastes involved in
discharge versus what the firm pays in taxes
that contribute to purification costs
– very little comparison
• Familiar example
• Purchase a shirt
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plastic wrap
paper supports with pins
plastic under the collar
in a box, in a store bag
• does the cost to the manufacturer include
– cost of removing the waste to your house
– the cost of burying it or converting it to ash and
CO2
– The cost of removing the ash so it does not
wind up on the shirt after washing
• The purchase of a new car does not reflect
the costs of air pollution (disease amongst
the effects), noise pollution and premature
deaths
•
The advantage is the use of the
Common’s - the air system
• Air pollution is having an adverse effect on our
lungs and health — and emissions from
automobiles are a big part of the problem. More
than three million Canadians suffer from serious
lung diseases. In less than 20 years, respiratory
disease in Canada has increased 400%.
• Automobile emissions also play a role in chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung
cancer, influenza, pneumonia, bronchiolitis,
tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis and respiratory
distress syndrome (RDS). It can also be a factor in
heart disease, allergies, and eye and throat
irritation.
• Respiratory diseases account for well over $12
billion a year in health-care costs in Canada.
Additional costs associated with disability and
death run well over $8 billion. And countless days
of work are lost.
• Camping in a park does not cost the camper
the bill for the clean up, repair or
maintenance of the site
•
Individuals therefore overuse the site
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use of wood falls for kindling
strip bark from trees
cut living trees
drive nails in trees for clotheslines
move fire locations for convenience
• burns through humus and disrupts more area
– less concern for garbage
• A set rental fee encourages maximum use
and therefore damage
IF I DON’T USE IT SOMEONE
ELSE WILL
• The modern concept of the commons is
more wide ranging than pasturing cattle
• It could include the parts of the global
ecosystem that cannot be owned
– air, water, fish
• Or it could refer to a good or service that
anyone can use, within certain restrictions
– beach that is used by many
• Types of land ownership
• open access - normally subject to forms of
regulation and control by government
• state property
• private property
• communal property
• though mixtures of the types are very
common
• The modern notion of the commons
includes many issues associated with
environmental management
– Rights of individuals to free access
– Responsibility to others
– Understanding of the consequences of one’s
actions on the surrounding ecosystems
– Understanding of the consequences of one’s
actions on the enjoyment of others
– Understanding of cumulative consequences
when there are many small and large stresses
– And finally
• How society regulates individuals use
– the freedom of access is not unfairly restricted
– the commons under the use remains viable and
sustainable
• Example
• car exhaust, listening to music in an open
space, canoeing in a wilderness area
• restrictions - bylaws to limit access to areas
in parks or public noise restrictions (time
and/or volume)
• restrictions - Clean Air acts to regulate
exhaust emissions or licences to limit use
(taxis, or the restrictions associated with the
200 mile fishing limit)
• Additional problem of privatizing the
commons
• purchasing rights to normally common
property in order to keep others out or to
enjoy the use of open access land
• land-locked lakes surrounded by privately
owned cottages
• forestry areas located on Crown land resource development (Government can
treat this land as open, limited access, or
closed)
• The Government often considers wildlife as
open access - it regulates the ‘harvest’ for
the common good of the state and all its
members
• Long-term leases given to mining, energy
development and forestry companies allow
for restricted or regulated use of this land
for individual gain depending on perception
of the resources availability and bounty)
• Conflicts escalate when more and more
people want to use LIMITED
RESOURCES for a GREATER NUMBER
OF PURPOSES
• Traditional decision making processes are
challenged - protests, appeals, or rights
ignored
• Can governments adequately mediate
between all interest groups?
• Who really is a stakeholder in the battle for
resources?
• Environmental groups argue that local
communities only care about their
IMMEDIATE ECONOMIC INTERESTS
and not about the overall good of society.
• Example would be South Moresby Island.
The local community of Sandspit had an
economy heavily dependent upon logging
• The stand was old growth and
environmental groups argued for
preservation of this unique resource.
• Sandspit argued for survival. The
establishment of a National Park would
spell ruin for the local economy
• Sandspit lost - the park was established
after negotiations with the governments of
BC and Canada
• In contrast in 1996 The Temagami Region
in Ontario was going through the same
process
• Environmental groups, based outside of the
region and having an urban based support
argued for the preservation of the area for
future generations - THE GREATER
GOOD
• The local community had a very high
unemployment rate
• Local Communities argue
• They have the best knowledge of the region
- an understanding based on familiarity.
Outsiders have theoretical knowledge only
and tend to humanize the environment
• It is in their interest to protect the
environment - they have to live in it
• The Ontario Government authorized the
cutting of Timber in the region
• The decision was based on the needs of the
local community
• Protests, arrests, ecoterrorism results
• Globe and
Mail Saturday Oct
31, 1998
• Historical resource use patterns
• Common property resources are used by
individuals with little regard for the
INTRINSIC VALUE OF THE RESOURCE
or the NEEDS OF OTHERS
• This occurs because they are common
property resources
• Consequences
RESOURCE DEGREDATION
AND POLLUTION
• Therefore there has to be forms of coercion
within the system
• Regard for the sustainability of the resource