Perhaps the biggest Human Systems Engineering problems that we most solve involve collective action that can either crash or maintain common resources. Indeed, we face many global commons dilemmas today, and the population of the globe has just passed 8 billion. Hardin influentially argued that the only way such tragedies can be avoided is by regulation by a superordinate authority. Elinor Ostrom, in contrast, did Nobel prize-winning work showing that communities could come together to effectively manage local resource problems. Can this be extended to managing global problems? In this discussion, please number your responses and answer the following:

1) Choose a global problem that involves a commons (e.g. climate, misinformation in social media, biodiversity loss, ocean health, population, etc.).

2) Discuss the individual motivations that drive the problematic behavior,

3) Discuss the ways that society currently seeks to modify the problematic behavior,

4) Apply something you covered in class to an analysis of why we find ourselves in these social traps.