everyone grabs a bit more, the pasture dies, nobody meant it to happen.
means a shared resource gets depleted because each user rationally maximizes their own gain while the cost is spread across everyone.
from garrett hardin's 1968 essay in science used a medieval english pasture where herders kept adding cattle until the grass was gone, though the idea traces back to william forster lloyd's 1833 pamphlet on population.
atlantic cod collapse — newfoundland fishery crashed in 1992, 35,000 jobs gone overnight
climate change — atmosphere as shared dumping ground for global carbon emissions
overfished oceans — 90 percent of global fish stocks fully or overexploited by 2020
antibiotic resistance — overuse depletes effectiveness everyone relies on collectively