Final answer:
The two sides of the tragedy of the commons are Resource depletion and individual benefit, with over-exploitation of resources as individuals act in self-interest, leading to government interventions like fishing licenses and harvest bans to mitigate effects.
Step-by-step explanation:
The two sides of the tragedy of the commons are Resource depletion and individual benefit. This economic principle, popularized by ecologist Garret Hardin, illustrates how resources that are commonly held or accessible to all (like oceans and fisheries) inevitably face over-exploitation because individuals acting in their own self-interest will consume or deplete the resource without regard for the long-term consequences or sustainability.
One manifestation of the tragedy of the commons is when competing companies exploit a resource, such as trees, for financial gain until none are left, as seen in answer choice A: Competing companies log as many trees as possible for financial gain until no trees are left. This demonstrates the conflict between short-term personal gain and the long-term preservation of resources for the community at large.
Government interventions, such as fishing licenses, harvest limits, shorter fishing seasons, and the establishment of catch shares, are means to mitigate the effects of the tragedy by aligning individual incentives with the sustainable use of the commons. In some cases, when species population decline to critically low numbers, governments may ban the harvesting of a resource altogether until populations return to sustainable levels.