The tragedy of the commons can be seen in a lot of aspects of our society. One way is water usage by farmers. For years in California, there was very little regulation on how much water farmers were using. According to Peter Gleick, the co-founder of the Pacific Institute, “as long as nobody was measuring or monitoring groundwater, it was to the advantage of any farmer to pump as much as they could.” He claims the system, “was designed to favor ignorance.” Not only was the amount of water not regulated but it is also free. Which is another reason farmers have not been incentivized to use water sustainably.
This is an example of the tragedy of the commons because without regulation each farmer does not feel he owes it to another farmer to only take a fair share of the water supply. If only one farmer took their fair share that farmer would suffer as others had more resources.
During the drought from 2011-2015, this issue was only exacerbated as with the reduced rainfall farmers had to turn more to groundwater in order to irrigate their crops. In an attempt to help the problem the government has taken some action. In 2014 the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act was passed which attempts to bring groundwater basins into balanced levels of pumping and recharge. But today only 1/5 of the states water basins are regulated by gauge meters meaning the rest still fall victim to the tragedy of the commons. Farmers continue to overuse our groundwater and as a result, the central valley has been sinking. Essentially as we continue on this route "over-pumping can lead to even more serious problems if the excessive extraction takes place over a long period of time – including the lowering or sinking of the land surface, which is called land subsidence, and, in areas along the coast, seawater intrusion." Basically either the land will sink or saltwater will get into the soil making it impossible to grow crops.
This raises many moral and ethical questions. Is the government responsible for placing regulations on groundwater usage? Should farmer be responsible and risk lower crop yields? Should farmers have to pay for water like the rest of us? But then, in turn, the price of food would the price of food rise?
https://west.stanford.edu/news/blogs/and-the-west-blog/2018/california-s-groundwater-free-all-ends-grappling-how-measure-what-s-left
https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management
https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/overdraft
https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-latest-drought/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_land_subsidence
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I do believe that the government is responsible for placing regulations on ground water usage. I also think that the price of food would possibly rise but the price of using water may lower with a regulation and encourage people to use less. The cost of subsidence also seems more costly than placing regulations because the overdraft between 1955 and 1972 cost what would be 1.3 billion in 2013 to repair it. In the long run regulations on groundwater would provide the means necessary for our state if another drought were to happen.
ReplyDeletehttp://waterinthewest.stanford.edu/groundwater/overview/
I agree with you that this is a big issue and the government needs to place regulations on ground water usage. I liked how you gave an example of how the Tragedy of the Commons work. If farmers only took their fair share The Tragedy of the Commons would not occur. Although, people are greedy, and when land is used by all and owned by none they assume that it is free for the taking. When everyone has this mindset, one will quickly realize how this is not sustainable. The government needs to put regulations on the commons to prevent their downfall, or else we will get no food at all (and possible mass death because of no resources in the long-term).
ReplyDeleteI believe that our government needs to do more on the water usage because a lot of water is being used and we are slowing running out. Compared to when we had that drought. I like how you have provided examples on how if farmers are not restricted on how much water they should use they just keep using some we should all have a limit on how much we use so we can save some water that we will need in the future. I agree with Kiera how she has stated that people are greedy and they don't really think about others especially if they are very privileged.
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