Creatures of Place is an insight into the wonderful world of Artist as Family: Meg Ulman, Patrick Jones, and their youngest son, Woody. Living on a 1/4-acre ...
LoL “stealing”. Are you “stealing” the air you’re breathing right now? That’s a weird choice of word. Anyway.
But you’re right. If everyone started to live like this, it would be devastating. But when you think about it, think about how many forests were cut down and how much land was taken and transformed just for agriculture around the world just to feed us humans. It’s insane.
The tragedy of the commons is when too many people use a public resource in a way that is unsustainable. For example, air is not privatized but air pollution impacts everyone who checks notes uses air.
That’s not to say there aren’t solutions to the Tragedy of the Commons problem and resources cannot be made publicly available, but systems need to be created to manage common resources.
I put it in quotes because I didn’t have a better word. If it’s a public park and I walk in with turf cutter, and take all the grass for my own yard, that’s clearly stealing from everyone.
How much can I take from a public forest without it being stealing? Can I cut down 1 tree for firewood? 10? How much foraging can I do before local wildlife is affected?
Last sentence:
“Forage for food and materials from their local forest.”
Talk about burying the lede. They can only function on a quarter acre by “stealing” from the public forests.
If everyone did that there would be no public forests. There’s not enough wood and food for everyone.
LoL “stealing”. Are you “stealing” the air you’re breathing right now? That’s a weird choice of word. Anyway.
But you’re right. If everyone started to live like this, it would be devastating. But when you think about it, think about how many forests were cut down and how much land was taken and transformed just for agriculture around the world just to feed us humans. It’s insane.
Yes. Stealing. From the taxpayers that maintain that forest. From the public who owns the property.
Stealing is exactly right. Because while everyone can breathe air, there isn’t enough of that forest to go around if everyone lived like this.
Welcome everyone to the commons (and by extension the tragedy of the commons)
The tragedy of the commons is, literally, privatization.
No it’s not.
The tragedy of the commons is when too many people use a public resource in a way that is unsustainable. For example, air is not privatized but air pollution impacts everyone who checks notes uses air.
That’s not to say there aren’t solutions to the Tragedy of the Commons problem and resources cannot be made publicly available, but systems need to be created to manage common resources.
I put it in quotes because I didn’t have a better word. If it’s a public park and I walk in with turf cutter, and take all the grass for my own yard, that’s clearly stealing from everyone.
How much can I take from a public forest without it being stealing? Can I cut down 1 tree for firewood? 10? How much foraging can I do before local wildlife is affected?
I don’t expect that one single family to be foraging that much to a point where the local wildlife is affected.
Which is why I specifically said if everyone did it it would be a problem.
Pretty sure they don’t grow their bicycles either!
He talked about community trade so I’ll give him that. I don’t want to give the impression that his lifestyle of living with less is wrong or bad.
I only question his sustainability claims when he is clearing the forest to heat his house.
They explicitly said this wasn’t the solution for everyone 😊
I carefully reread the transcript. They don’t say that anywhere.
He talks about sustainability. But if everyone lived sustainably like him the forest would be gone in a few years for firewood.
There are too many people.