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

California medicine 113 (5): 40–47. BioScience 36 (9): 599–606. S.

His exposition of the tragedy of the commons in a 1968 paper called attention to "the damage that innocent actions by individuals can inflict on the environment". [page needed]. He is also known for Hardin's First Law of Human Ecology: "You cannot do only one thing" which expresses the interconnectedness of every action.