Ecology and Climate: Feedbacks Decide the Outcome
Remove one predator and rivers can change course. The size of a change tells you little — what matters is whether the system amplifies it or absorbs it.
Concept
Tragedy of the Commons
Carrying Capacity: The Ceiling That Can Be Lowered
A population grows until the resource runs short — then often keeps going past the limit. What makes overshoot serious is that it can damage the resource base and leave the ceiling permanently lower.
The Tragedy of the Commons: When Restraint Is Punished
Every herder who adds a cow to the shared pasture captures the whole benefit and pays a twentieth of the cost. Nobody is greedy, everyone is correct, and the pasture dies anyway.
The Prisoner's Dilemma: When Two Rational People Both Lose
Betraying your partner is the correct choice no matter what they do. So both of you betray, and both of you serve five years instead of one. No error was made — and that is exactly the problem.
Nash Equilibrium: Why Everyone Stays Somewhere Nobody Likes
Two petrol stations cut prices until neither can move without losing. Nobody wanted the result, everyone behaved sensibly, and it held anyway — because stable and good are different properties.
Regulation: Rules Can Only Describe What Already Happened
A rule needs a harm that is noticed, documented, understood, and politically salient. All four take years, while products change in months — and that gap explains most of the field.