Climate Change and the Global Commons

Garrett Hardin argued in 1968 that users of a commons (e.g., pastures, fishing grounds) are caught in a predictable process that leads to the destruction of the resources on which they depend. The tragedy of the commons' arises when a collectively-owned sustainable resource is wasted through individual overuse and failure to limit their consumption. While no single act of consumption contributes much to the problem, the consequence of all these individual actions is a situation where the commons can no longer sustain overall consumption.

 extending the premise, our global commons includes the entire biosphere. In the case of the global warming, the sustainable resource is an atmosphere actually capable of absorbing the infrared radiation of the sun without too much warming of the lower atmosphere and oceans. The consumption involves the release of the greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, etc.), especially through the burning of the fossil fuels, and also the destruction of carbon' sinks'- forest, coastal habitats and vegetation. Collective action will require using less fossil fuels or using them more efficiently as well as maintaining or even expanding the total area of forest cover and other ecosystems.
The pastures are already over-grazed, with well-organized cases of continued deforestation and depleted world fisheries. In coastal regions, the evidence of environmental change attributable to the growth of human populations and their consumption and production patterns is demonstrated in terms of reduced water quality; destruction and degradation of such critical habitats as estuaries, coastal wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs, and beds of macrophytes and sea grass; the collapse of stocks of important fish and shellfish; deforestation; land subsidence; sea water intrusion into groundwater aquifers; erosion of topsoil; ocean acidification; and even the spread of the dead zones(Chen). These threats will grow in the future due to population growth and migration to coastal areas, rapid urbanization, and uncontrolled development and resource use.
The problem is that this is no longer a tragedy of the commons in a certain locality. The tragedy is now global in scope. We are facing a warming of the global climate system and there is a clear linkage to human activities. Climate change are not new - cycles of tremendous climatic changes have happened throughout Earth's history; but in those times, the contributions from human were very insignificant. During the last 100 years, human activities related to the burning of fossil fuels, clearing of forest and agriculture have resulted in a 35 percent increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, causing increased trapping of heat and warming of the earth's atmosphere.
Further more, in addition to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, destruction of important habitats contributes to global warming and climate change. Deforestation and poor land use, which have reduced the absorptive capacity of plants, forests, and soils for carbon dioxide, have made things worse. Degradation and loss of marine habitats also contribute directly to increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and ocean. The carbon stocks in coastal habitats, such as mangroves, sea grass, meadows, kelp forest and tidal salt marshes, are similar to many terrestrial ecosystems (forest). Not yet accounted for is the carbon sequestration in sediments by coastal habitats. Just remember the message of the phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"THERE IS STILL TIME TO AVOID THE WORST IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, IF WE TAKE STRONG ACTION NOW" by (sir Nicholas Stern).