Indeed, our particular concept of private property, which deters us from exhausting the positive resources of the earth, favors pollution.

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.

What features of your daily life do you expect to be improved by a further increase in population?

Economists (and others) who are satisfied with nature-free equations develop a dangerous hubris about the potency of our species

Ecological differentiation is the necessary condition for coexistence.

In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.

The rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another . . . But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit — in a world that is limited. 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. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.