But as population became denser, the natural chemical and biological recycling processes became overloaded, calling for a redefinition of property rights.Garrett Hardin
Copy
It is a mistake to think that we can control the breeding of mankind in the long run by an appeal to conscience.Garrett Hardin
Copy
Using the commons as a cesspool does not harm the general public under frontier conditions, because there is no public, the same behavior in a metropolis is unbearable.Garrett Hardin
Copy
Education can counteract the natural tendency to do the wrong thing, but the inexorable succession of generations requires that the basis for this knowledge be constantly refreshed.Garrett Hardin
Copy
A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.Garrett Hardin
Copy
Fundamentalists are panicked by the apparent disintegration of the family, the disappearance of certainty and the decay of morality. Fear leads them to ask, if we cannot trust the Bible, what can we trust?Garrett Hardin
Copy
The social arrangements that produce responsibility are arrangements that create coercion, of some sort.Garrett Hardin
Copy
Why are ecologists and environmentalists so feared and hated? This is because in part what they have to say is new to the general public, and the new is always alarming.Garrett Hardin
Copy
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.Garrett Hardin
Copy
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.Garrett Hardin
Copy
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.Garrett Hardin
Copy
Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum.Garrett Hardin
Copy
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society. It follows that any choice and decision with regard to the size of the family must irrevocably rest with the family itself, and cannot be made by anyone else.Garrett Hardin
Copy
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.Garrett Hardin
Copy
The only kind of coercion I recommend is mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected.Garrett Hardin
Copy
But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere.Garrett Hardin
Copy