The tragedy of the commons is a stark example of how human misappropriation leads to the loss of resources.

To demonstrate what it is, we will use the example of traffic jams. Every person out on the road wants to get to work using the fastest way possible, so they take the freeway. This works for a while, until too many people get involved, and then the freeway becomes congested, making it actually the slowest way to get to work! Because people were individualistic, and because there was nothing to stop them, a traffic jam was formed. Another example would be what the original tragedy was based on. The common areas of a New England pasture area were used by too many cattle. Eventually the area died and no one could use it. Unintentional exploitation led to a bad situation for everybody. Now, these two examples arent directly related to environmental science, but many tragedy of commons scenarios do play out with environment impacts. Lets take the overfishing of Tuna off the Cape Cod coast as an example. If the fisherman had all grouped together, and created a system of transparency where there was a quota, then they wouldnt have to deal with smaller amounts of fish now. They would be able to have enough fish, while still making sure that there would be enough to go around the next season. A drawback to this is that the rules can still be broken with no consequence. Another solution would be for the government to regulate how much fish that the fisherman could catch each season. While solving the problem, it will also not foster good-will with the fisherman, as they had no control over the process. Therefore they will be more likely to break the rules, even if there are consequences. So, what are the root causes of the Tragedy of the Commons? Ultimately we have to look to the base human emotions of greed and fear. Greed because we exploit something when we can. Fear because were worried someone else will take it before us. If youre the cod fisherman who has no regulations, why wouldnt you just catch all the fish you want? Your allowed to, and if you dont someone else will do it first. If there are no safeguards in place, we allow greed and fear to run rampant and ruin the only resources that we have.