Garrett Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons put forward underdeveloped arguments that continue to be reflected in simplistic debates about the drivers and implications of demographic dynamics. It’s time to embrace the complexity that Hardin lacked in order to develop better-informed policy.
References
Hardin, G. Science 162, 1243–1248 (1968).
Ostrom, E. Governing the Commons (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1990).
Dolšak, N. & Ostrom, E. (eds) The Commons in the New Millennium: Challenges and Adaptation (MIT Press, Cambridge, 2003).
Westoff, C. Pop. Develop. Rev. 38, 169–178 (2013).
Mbacké, C. Pop. Develop. Rev. 43, 330–337 (2017).
Grace, K. Nat. Clim. Change 7, 479–485 (2017).
Shanley, P., Pierce, A. R., Laird, S. A., Binnqüist, C. L. & Guariguata, M. R. Tropical Forestry Handbook 2016 2713–2760 (Springer, Berlin, 2016).
Dasgupta, P. S. Sci. Am. 272, 40–45 (1995).
Brauner-Otto, S. R. & Axinn, W. G. Pop. Environ. 38, 381–406 (2017).
Simon, D. H. Pop. Environ. 38, 407–423 (2017).
Americans see overpopulation as a bigger problem than underpopulation. Rasmussen Reports (7 June 2018).
Gao, G. Scientists more worried than public about world’s growing population. FactTank, Pew Research Center (8 June, 2015).
World Population Prospects (UNFPA, New York, 2017).
World Bank CO 2 Emissions (Metric Tons per Capita) (Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee,2014); https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hunter, L.M., Prakash, A. Hardin’s oversimplification of population growth. Nat Sustain 2, 78–79 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0230-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0230-5
- Springer Nature Limited