Garrett Hardin: An Appreciation

Excerpted by Nicholas Stix

Garrett Hardin: An Appreciation
By Wayne Lutton, Ph.D.
Volume 29, Number 3 (Spring 2019)
Issue theme: "Living Within Limits - The Enduring Relevance of Garrett Hardin"

In December 1968, Garrett Hardin (1915–2003) published an essay in the journal Science, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” wherein he called attention to “the damage that innocent actions by individuals can inflict on the environment.” This paper was widely translated, becoming one of the most famous essays written in the second-half of the twentieth century. Hardin, Professor of Human Ecology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, came to influence people in the nascent environmental and immigration reform movements. Many will recall Hardin’s First Law of Human Ecology: “we can never do merely one thing. Any intrusion into nature has numerous effects, many of which are unpredictable.”

Contributors to this issue of The Social Contract include environmental scientist Leon Kolankiewicz, former Colorado governor Richard D. Lamm, and immigration writer Brenda Walker, who draw attention to the vision of Garrett Hardin. We also include Craig Straub’s interview with Professor Hardin.

In “Smokescreens and Evasions,” first published in the journal World Issues (1978) and included in his book, Naked Emperors: Essays of a Taboo-Stalker (Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1982), Professor Hardin observed:

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