Reference no: EM13823568

The Article: https://www.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243.full

Read the supplemental paper, Tragedy of the Commons (Links to an external site.), by Garrett Hardin.

This older article written during the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union, where global nuclear war was a very real threat to our world. In that mindset, all scientists could do at the time was warn about the technical dangers of nuclear war, as the solution to preventing it was not a technical one; it was a moral one. Hardin expanded on this notion of a global problem that had no technical solution, and applied it to the problem of human population growth with respect to common-use resources. He questions whether we should consider positive growth rates as being "good", and whether or not the decisions made for individual growth and prosperity can automatically be assumed as being the best decisions for an entire society.

While reading the paper, consider the positive benefits of achieving your own individual goals and desires (either as a single person, family, or community), and contrast them to the negative aspects they may inflict upon common-use resources and utilities that we each use every day.  

Post:
Post an explanation of these goals and desires with respect to the negative common-use aspects, and discuss them with your peers using examples and ideas from the Hardin paper as a guide. Use your positive Critical Thinking Habits-of-Mind discussed in your Module 1 Critical Thinking Discussion assignment, and be honest in your self-reflection while making these comparisons. Is there a technical solution to your individual vs. common-use dilemma? If so, is the solution objectionable to anyone else? If there is no technical solution, is there a moral solution instead?