The Commons Blog is a collaborative web log dedicated to the principle of promoting environmental quality and human dignity and prosperity through markets and property rights. Put more simply, it’s about free markets protecting the environment.

The blog is named after the famous 1968 Garrett Hardin essay, The Tragedy of the Commons, where he established that common ownership of land and natural resources tended to lead to the degradation of those “common” resources. The free-market environmentalist movement exists to demonstrate that property rights have time and again proven the bulwark against such degradation. You can read more about the theory on our page “About Free Market Environmentalism.”

The picture in the top left corner of the site is of the Natural Bridge of Virginia. Natural Bridge is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Since the nation's founding it has also been protected and conserved through private ownership, not government regulation or public control. At one point, it was even owned by Thomas Jefferson. For more on the history and conservation of Natural Bridge, see this case study by noted conservation scholar R.J. Smith.

You can read more about the authors contributing to this site on our “About the Contributors” page.

Comments made on the site will be emailed to the site editor, Iain Murray, and may be subject to editing or deletion. Please remember you are a guest on private property. We shall defend the environmental quality of this blog as staunchly as we would defend any stream, forest or animal we own.

Finally, please note that this site accepts no corporate funding and is in many ways a labor of love for the authors. We do gratefully accept donations through the web site to help defray the costs.

Any questions can be emailed to the site editor, Iain Murray, at ismurray [at] commonsblog [dot] org.

Iain Murray and Jonathan H. Adler, July 26, 2004.