Historically, people also cut down most of the forests in the Mediterranean for firewood and shipbuilding without even attempting to balance the process, causing major problems for their descendants. Most of this activity predated modern capitalism by millennia.

Historically and currently, people polluted common waters and air with all sorts of agricultural and industrial runoff. Heck, someone around me has been feeding their home fireplace with plastic right now and fifty other families have to smell the acrid smoke.

Historically and currently, people overfished oceanic stocks to total depletion in certain seas.

Historically and currently, people dumped their refuse somewhere behind their village or city, creating rotting heaps of trash.

I don't see anything made up about the tragedy of the commons.