The devil in the number: Rethinking Garrett Hardin’s The tragedy of the commons and global overpopulation crisis

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue VII, July 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

The devil in the number: Rethinking Garrett Hardin’s The tragedy of the commons and global overpopulation crisis

Taiwo A. Olaiya
Department of Public Administration
Obafemi Awolowo University
Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT
Critiques of the misconstrued thesis of Garrett Hardin’s (1968) classic essay entitled The Tragedy of the Commons from the futility of technical solution for overpopulation crisis to concern of managing the commons are well documented. However, little is known of the remote and proximate causes of the pejorative confusion about the important essay. This article engages the discursive reconstruction of Hardin’s thesis focussing on the original intent, which is the unscrupulousness of unchecked human breeding as the critical factor in the tragedy of the earth’s commons. Deployed is an eloquent metaphor, the devil in the number, and thematic analysis of the (Hardin’s) essay and systematic review of relevant and related literature before and after the essay was published in 1968. The texts reinvent and reinforce the illogic of overpopulating the world while simultaneously pursuing the technocratic solutions to nature’s burden. The article reports four marked factors that swayed the perception of Hardin’s thesis. In effect, the attempt stimulates a discourse showcasing the significance of Hardin’s essay, particularly the global lackadaisical attitude towards overpopulation as a strategic, if not the single most important, factor in the overburdened ecosystem and, by extension, as the harbinger for the socio-economic and governance crisis across the global divides.

Keywords: The tragedy of the commons, Ecological crisis, Human fecundity, Overpopulation crisis, Garrett Hardin

INTRODUCTION

In environmental studies, controlled population as opposed to technological solution for environmental crisis remains essentially neglected. Notwithstanding, few scholars have attempted to mobilise the discourse on environmental challenges beyond the technology of ecological restoration, renaturalisation, reforestation and re-wilding. Unfortunately, studies on non-technical solutions to environmental problems have either been abandoned or reworked from its original thesis (Feeny, Berkes, McKay and Acheson, 1990; Gehrt, 1996). In 1968, a renowned ecologist, Garrett Hardin, published a thoughtful essay entitled The Tragedy of the Commons, which took the world by storm. In that excellent, well-quoted and well-critiqued epoch-making scholarship, Hardin queried the rationality in pursuing the technology of environmental restoration under the heavy yoke of an astounding 3.7 billion human number, as it were, and still rapidly counting. Arguably, the author transformed the narrative about overpopulation from the conventional, liberal and solution-driven tune to hard-line sustainable population strategies than never before.

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