JEFF
Well, the first thing is,
I find a beached whale.

IVY
Finally!

JEFF
I wanted to trade most of it for ownership of a forest on the main island...

MERIAH
...but we said no.

ARIA
It was a group decision.

JEFF
So I'll sell my whale meat
to the Japanese instead.

ZEUS
Okay, fine, but you'll have to pay the ecological cost of transporting a whale to Japan...

JEFF
No, no, I'll have them pay it.

ZEUS
Well, no, this is what I keep trying to tell you, nobody's picking up the ecological cost of anything for you.

JEFF
Okay then, so most of the meat goes bad.
But I save the blubber.

MERIAH
You should put some of that
on your garden.

CHRISTINE
Zeus said a great white shark had killed the whale. And that there were orcas around our island, eating the seals.

JEFF
And I built an internal combustion engine. So I have lots of power.

MERIAH
And lots of pollution.

CHRISTINE
I found bees and harvested honey. And I started watering some grassland...

ZEUS
She's enhancing the natural grasses
to use as fuel instead of wood.

ARIA
I was enhancing the growth of Footprint Island irises, so we'd have plenty to sell this year.

MERIAH
We wanted to sell only the flowers. We didn't sell any bulbs. So only we can grow them.

IVY
But we had to pay the ecological cost of transporting them to the mainland. And let a seaplane land in our lagoon...

ARIA
...We didn't want to do that.
So we built a sailboat.
Jeff and I built it...

MERIAH
I wove the ropes for it, and the sail.

ARIA
With a sailboat, we can bring irises to the mainland, and sell them, and not have to pay the ecological cost of transporting them.

JEFF
Next year I'll have a boat with a little internal combustion engine. I'm starting to make metals. Then I can make a lot of money off tourism.

IVY
What are you guys going to
spend your money on? A phone?

ARIA
No, I don't want a phone.

IVY
Something for your house?

ARIA
Jeff already made me glass windows.

JEFF
With my pressure chamber.

CHRISTINE
I'm making hives, to encourage
the bees to grow.

IVY
I'm still trying to invent solar power. Zeus says I have promising results, maybe next year.

MERIAH
I don't see why you need power.
For a phone? I hate phones. For light? We have whale oil lamps.

JEFF
You don't have any power.
You guys are like in the Dark Ages.
Have I found copper yet?

ZEUS SPEAKS

Commentary by Ken Eklund, moderator

I was relieved to see that last year's footprint growth was not repeated this year. There was a relatively small growth in land use, but significant change in the mindset of the players... they started trading with the mainland this year. Dollar signs started dancing in their eyes!

Up to now, the big obstacle to trade has been the transportation cost of things... Since it's part of an item's ecological cost, it's added to the cost a player has to pay. But the team has been very creative in overcoming obstacles, and they hit upon the solution of building their own sailboat and transporting the goods themselves.

They also paid some attention to water issues this year; both Jeff and Meriah built ponds. Jeff also drilled for water, and discovered an aquifer on his island.

One sour note, however, occurred when a dead whale washed up on the small island. The players squabbled over it, and while they squabbled, most of the whale spoiled. The community spirit (which was so strong when they hunted the whale together) fell apart immediately when one player could claim the resource over the others.

We took some time to talk about the tragedy of the commons" - how resources held in common can fall victim to exploitation if community spirit falls apart.We'll see if this discussion has any effect on the community spirit of Footprint Island, where everything is held in common.