Introduction to Garrett Hardin’s “Human Ecology: The Subversive, Conservative Science”

Garrett Hardin alarmed the fledgling environmental movement with a cautionary tale, published in 1968 in Science magazine, about “the tragedy of the commons.” The essay made the stark claim that environmental problems were the collective consequence of human action—rooted in unrestrained individual self-interest. For Hardin, the most daunting example of environmental destruction was population growth. This theme remained a central feature of his lifelong concerns about ecosystem carrying capacity, human overpopulation, reproductive rights, and “lifeboat ethics.” His controversial ideas about overexploitation of common resources opened the door to a growing awareness that many environmental problems are problems of human beliefs and behavior. They were also a major impetus for the development of alternative models of sustainable development, consensual decisionmaking, and common property resource management.