"Tragedies of the commons" and tragedies of the private : a reconsideration of property types and environmental outcomes

Two decades have passed since Garrett Hardin's influential paper, "The Tragedy of the Commons," appeared in the journal Science. In this paper, Hardin asserted that land and resources "open to all, without limit" -- those that humans use 'in common'-- invite environmental tragedy. It is in each individual's self-interest, so his argument goes, to add one more sheep to a 'common' pasture, to take one more fish from the 'common' sea, to emit a bit more pollution into the 'common' air, even when the net result of many such individual actions will be an overgrazed pasture, a depleted fish stock, or a polluted atmosphere-- environmental states that cause all users to suffer. In this thesis, Chapter One ('Tragedies of the Commons Reconsidered') summarizes Hardin's 1968 article, and reviews the various debates it has generated. The chapter details the confusion and particular controversies that have arisen from Hardin's choice of examples of 'tragic commons' and some countervailing illustrations. In light of these clarifications, it tries to distinguish misplaced from well-taken criticisms of Hardin's argument. Chapter Two ('Types of Property') further attempts to clarify 'commons' issues by presenting various typologies of property from modern property-rights literature, with a view to specifying situations (including property regimes) in which 'tragedies of the commons' may occur. This broadens into a discussion of prevailing theories about the relationship between property types and environmental outcomes—an area about which both Hardin and institutional economists have written. Having evaluated the potential for environmental tragedy under the various non-private-property regimes which Hardin loosely groups together as 'commons', this thesis considers the possibility of environmental tragedy occurring in situations of private property ownership as well. The issue of the 'environmental outcomes likely to flow from privatisation' is the subject of increasing debate. 'New Right environmentalists' assert that privatisation of portions of the physical environment can solve most natural resource problems; their liberal critics are sceptical. The potential impact of resource privatisation is emphatically more than a topic for academic philosophising. Several Western governments (most notably, those of the United Kingdom and New Zealand) are currently selling off previously government-owned natural resource assets, and it is important to know what types of environmental consequences can be anticipated from such policies. Chapter Three ('Tragedies of the Private') explores, and ultimately rejects, the notion that privatisation automatically engenders "intrinsic responsibility" and thereby precludes environmental abuse. It argues that there are currently few incentives for the exercise of environmental responsibility on private property, given the nature of property rights at law, and the social attitudes and expectations these legal 'rights' have helped to shape. The occurrence of environmental tragedies on private property is therefore shown to be not an inexplicable abberation, but, as with the 'commons', a predictable systemic failure. Chapter Four ('Conclusions and Further Questions') explores the reasons privatisation is currently so much in vogue among Western capitalist governments despite its obvious problems. It also acknowledges that there are always likely to be a mix of property types in Western capitalist democracies, in addressing the question of which property regimes are most appropriate for which natural resources. The thesis concludes by suggesting that we move beyond blanket endorsement or dismissal of specific types of property, and instead focus on the creation of forms of political regulation of resource use which are capable of transcending property type to secure desired environmental ends. The focus thus shifts from an emphasis on ownership to an emphasis on control or, from a concern with nominal structure to an emphasis on 'real' structure

Identifying Toxic Consumer Products: A Novel Data Set Reveals Air Emissions of Potent Carcinogens, Reproductive Toxicants, and Developmental Toxicants.

Consumer products are important sources of exposure to harmful chemicals. Product composition is often a mystery to users, however, due to gaps in the laws governing ingredient disclosure. A unique data set that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) uses to determine how volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) from consumer products affect smog formation holds a partial solution. By analyzing CARB data on VOCs in consumer products, we identified and quantified emissions of volatile chemicals regulated under the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act ("Prop 65"). We here highlight individual chemicals as well as consumer product categories that people are likely to be exposed to as individual consumers, in the workplace, and at the population level. Of the 33 Prop 65-listed chemicals that appear in the CARB emissions inventory, we classified 18 as "top tier priorities for elimination". Among these, methylene chloride and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone were most prevalent in products across all three population groups. Of 172 consumer product categories, 105 contained Prop 65-listed chemicals. Although these chemicals are known carcinogens and reproductive/developmental toxicants, they remain in widespread use. Manufacturers and regulators should prioritize product categories containing Prop 65-listed chemicals for reformulation or redesign to reduce human exposures and associated health risks

A portfolio approach to analyzing complex human-environment interactions:Institutions and land change

The challenge confronting those seeking to understand the institutional dimensions of global environmental change and patterns of land-use and land-cover change is to find effective methods for analyzing the dynamics of socio-ecological systems. Such systems exhibit a number of characteristics that pose problems for the most commonly used statistical techniques and may require additional and innovative analytic tools. This article explores options available to researchers working in this field and recommends a strategy for achieving scientific progress. Statistical procedures developed in other fields of study are often helpful in addressing challenges arising in research into global change. Accordingly, we start with an assessment of some of the enhanced statistical techniques that are available for the study of socio-ecological systems. By themselves, however, even the most advanced statistical models cannot solve all the problems that arise in efforts to explain institutional effectiveness and patterns of land-use and land-cover change. We therefore proceed to an exploration of additional analytic techniques, including configurational comparisons and meta-analyses; case studies, counterfactuals, and narratives; and systems analysis and simulations. Our goal is to create a portfolio of complementary methods or, in other words, a tool kit for understanding complex human-environment interactions. When the results obtained through the use of two or more techniques converge, confidence in the robustness of key findings rises. Contradictory results, on the other hand, signal a need for additional analysis

p53 regulation by TRP2 is not pervasive in melanoma

p53 is a central tumor suppressor protein and its inhibition is believed to be a prerequisite for cancer development. In approximately 50% of all malignancies this is achieved by inactivating mutations in the p53 gene. However, in several cancer entities, including melanoma, p53 mutations are rare. It has been recently proposed that tyrosinase related protein 2 (TRP2), a protein involved in melanin synthesis, may act as suppressor of the p53 pathway in melanoma. To scrutinize this notion we analyzed p53 and TRP2 expression by immunohistochemistry in 172 melanoma tissues and did not find any correlation. Furthermore, we applied three different TRP2 shRNAs to five melanoma cell lines and could not observe a target specific effect of the TRP2 knockdown on either p53 expression nor p53 reporter gene activity. Likewise, ectopic expression of TRP2 in a TRP2 negative melanoma cell line had no impact on p53 expression. In conclusion our data suggest that p53 repression critically controlled by TRP2 is not a general event in melanoma