Tragedy of the Commons
The National Science Foundation
Created in 1950, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has a mission to promote scientific progress, primarily by providing funding to researchers. The NSF provides over 20% of the federal funding given to college and university research in America in all fields of science, engineering, and mathematics except for medicine. NSF also invests in educating the next generation’s scientists. The NSF’s Chalk Talk video series animates scientific terms in an easy to understand and engaging way. This video defines the concept known as the tragedy of the commons.
National Science Foundation
Analyzing the Writer’s Technique
After watching Tragedy of the Commons, answer the questions below. Then submit your responses.
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Question
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Possible Answer: The video defines the term tragegy of the commons in hopes that understanding about the concept will help us learn how to protect our resources. The video’s conclusion mentions the importance of learning about how people interact with their environments in order to prevent the destruction of resources.
Question
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Possible Answer: The Tragedy of the Commons video uses illustration to give examples of the tragedy of the commons, including farmers and cows depleting grass, fishermen threatening cod and tuna populations, people draining aquifers, and drivers clogging roads. The video also uses cartoons to visually illustrate its point, such as when people drinking from a glass diminishes the water level.
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Thinking Critically about Definition
Question
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Possible Answer: The video defines the tragedy of the commons (term) as a “dilemma” (class) “that develops when a group shares a limited resource” (distinguishing characteristic). The word used for class, dilemma, is too broad and could apply to something as abstract as moral philosophy or as mundane as which cereal to eat for breakfast. It should be replaced by a narrower terms such as “social or environmental problem.” Another word that could be replaced is group. It’s unclear what the group consists of, though the conclusion of the video implies that it is people or animals.
Question
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Possible Answer: The video uses hypothetical examples because it wants to remain objective. Since it was created by the National Science Foundation for educational purposes, its goal is to inform and make people aware of the issue to prevent further depletion of “the commons.” Real world examples could be effective if the video meant to expose a particular group’s overuse of common resources in order to condemn them or to get them to change their ways, but as an educational tool disseminated by a government agency such examples could be seen as “politicking.”