Given a world of limited resources, sustainability is a critical issue that directly impacts our existence and longevity. David Feeny has described two terrible characteristics of common property – subtractability and exclusion (1990: 3) – which make the control of common resources a source of tension and conundrum. Individuals ultimately tend to act in their own self-interest, implicitly destroying and exploiting common resources, leaving the resolution of challenges to the issue of sustainability best suited to impartial and outsiders. In 1968, Garrett Hardin published an iconic article on sustainability issues. human sustainability. He describes the tragedy of the commons with herders keeping livestock on common land, where individual herders could maximize their profit by adding additional livestock (1968: 1244). He said that adding an animal would increase that herder with a utility of +1, where the negative utility from overgrazing of -1 would be shared among all herders. Feeny called this phenomenon subtractability, in which one individual's behavior could subtract the well-being of another (1990: 3). Subtractability shows us that an individual acting in his or her own self-interest is inherently harmful to all who share the common resource. Communities are made up of selfish individuals who have the free choice to defect. Individuals are free to choose to defect, and thus an individual's choice of self-interest is directly or negatively linked to the sustainability of that group, or to the use of a resource "without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." ” (Feeny 1990:5 ). Furthermore, in a place of complete free choice, the sustainability and survival of the group depends on people's conscience and goodwill towards others. Cl...... in the center of the card ......lives, such as re-election (Hardin 1968:1245), obtaining alliances and the support of private companies. “Who will control the observers?” (Hardin 1968:1246). Individuals work to maximize themselves and their livelihood. Sustainability, on the other hand, is an issue that does not have a single actor working on its behalf. “Tragedy… lies in the solemnity of the ruthless unfolding of things” (Hard 1968:1244). Perhaps the fact that sustainability is inherently a community responsibility is what makes unsustainability “tragic.” Works Cited Durham, William H. 1991 Coevolution: Genes, Culture, and Human Diversity. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.Feeny, David, Fikret Berkes, Bonnie J. McCay, and James M. Acheson 1990 The Tragedy of the Commons: Twenty-Two Years Later. Human Ecology 18(1): 1-19.Hardin, Garrett 1968 The tragedy of the commons. Science 162: 1234-1248.