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In an approximate way, the logic of commons has been understood for a long time, perhaps since the discovery of agriculture or the invention of private property in real estate.

Garrett Hardin

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Garrett Hardin
Age: 88 †
Born: 1915
Born: April 21
Died: 2003
Died: September 14
Biologist
Demographer
Ecologist
Statistician
University Teacher
Dallas
Texas
Garrett James Hardin
Garrett J. Hardin
Understood
Estate
Perhaps
Estates
Since
Agriculture
Real
Invention
Long
Logic
Way
Discovery
Time
Private
Approximate
Property
Commons

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Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.
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People are the quintessential element in all technology... Once we recognize the inescapable human nexus of all technology our attitude toward the reliability problem is fundamentally changed.
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The only kind of coercion I recommend is mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected.
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Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart.
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Moreover, the practical recommendations deduced from ecological principles threaten the vested interests of commerce it is hardly surprising that the financial and political power created by these investments should be used sometimes to suppress environmental impact studies.
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(Technology reliability) x (Human reliability) = (System reliability)
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No one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.
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Throughout history, human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonize-destroy-move on.
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The optimum population is, then, less than the maximum.
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To say that we mutually agree to coercion is not to say that we are required to enjoy it, or even to pretend we enjoy it.
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But as population became denser, the natural chemical and biological recycling processes became overloaded, calling for a redefinition of property rights.
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However, I think the major opposition to ecology has deeper roots than mere economics ecology threatens widely held values so fundamental that they must be called religious.
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A technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality.
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We can't cure a shortage by increasing the supply.
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Incommensurables cannot be compared.
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Economists (and others) who are satisfied with nature-free equations develop a dangerous hubris about the potency of our species
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We see only what we have names for.
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In a competitive world of limited resources, total freedom of individual action is intolerable
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You can never do merely one thing. The law applies to any action that changes something in a complex system. The point is that an action taken to alleviate a problem will trigger several effects, some of which may offset or even negate the one intended.
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