Tragedy of the Commons: what is it?

Question

my AP Enviro teacher taught us about it a couple of days ago and i still don't understand it. Can you explain it and maybe give some modern day examples?

Answer 1

Certain things are for the use of all. If one person or group monopolizes it, there will be nothing left for use by the rest. Drilling for oil in ANWR would be an example. Grazing free in national parks is one now.

"The law is hard on man or woman

Who steals a goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common from the goose.

Answer 2

I took AP environmental last year, good luck with the class, mine was really fun and I learned a lot.  

The tragedy of the commons is where there is a resource that is un-owned or has shared ownership.  Basically, everyone who uses the resource wants to get what they think is their fair share because then they can make more money.  So they all try to get as much of the resource as they can, but since they are all taking the resource, the resource begins to deplete, meaning, there begins to be less and less of the resource.

An example of this would be fishing.  Since nobody technically owns the ocean, all fishers can fish as much as they can get.  But since the fishermen are competing, they all want to get more than everyone else.  However, if they overfish the water, it creates a problem as fish populations begin to dwindle.