Geog 300i 1st Edition Lecture 2 Current Lecture The challenge of environmental management- Environmental problems are often hard to address because of a variety of issues- Uncertainty related to the dynamics of the resource and the behavior of other parties- Different interests of the various stakeholders- Changes in the policy domainHarbin- Perceives the tragedy of the commons - The tragedy of the commons is part of the population problem- Science is not the solution to our fundamental problems- As many ecologists, Hardin is not afraid to tackle moral issues – economists are much more shy on that- “As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain. Explicitly or implicitly, more or less consciously, he asks, "What is the utility to me of adding one more animal to my herd?" This utility has one negative and one positive component. - 1) The positive component is a function of the increment of one animal. Since the herdsman receives all the proceeds from the sale of the additional animal, the positive utility is nearly + 1. - 2) The negative component is a function of the additional overgrazing created by one more animal. Since, however, the effects of overgrazing are shared by all the herdsmen, the negative utility for any particular decision- making herdsman is only a fraction of -1.”- Advocates a large government role in taxing polluters and in general in the control of reproduction and overpopulation.Ostrom- Positive view on the capacity of society to create solutions to the problem of the commons- Two issues:o Overuseo Lack of maintenance/improvement- Common pool resources on the basis of a variety of factors: These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.o size and carrying capacity of the resource system, o measurability of the resource, o temporal and spatial availability of resource flows, o amount of storage in the system, o whether resources move (like water, wildlife, and most fish) or are stationary (liketrees and medicinal plants)o how fast resources regenerate, and o how various harvesting technologies affect patterns of regeneration- There is no one size fits all solution!- Technology can help in identifying the problem and monitoring the management of the resource, but it is not a substitute for decision-making- Two issues and two solutions:o Overuse Restrict access o Lack of maintenance/improvement  Create incentives to maintain/improve the resource- The outcome of the game depends on who is playing it- Institutions and players -“draw on trust, reciprocity, and reputation to develop norms that limit use.”Rittle and Webber- Our capacity is not easily adapted to “contemporary conceptions of interacting open systems and to contemporary concerns with equity.”- What are the characteristics of a wicked problem? o There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem.  The information needed to understand the problem depends upon one's idea for solving it. The formulation of a wicked problem is the problem!o Wicked problems have no stopping ruleo Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, but good-or-bado There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problemo Every solution to a wicked problem is a "one-shot operation"; because there is noopportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantlyo Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) setof potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plano Every wicked problem is essentially unique o Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problemo The existence of a discrepancy representing a wicked problem can be explained in numerous ways. The choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem's resolution The planner has no right to be