Environmental Issues and the Industrial Revolution
Temara Huston
Argosy University Online
SCI201— Ecology and Environmental Sustainability
Module 1, Assignment 3
Dr: James Lilly
02/17/16

The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a major turning point in earth’s ecology and the relationship between humans and environment. There were several negative environmentally impacts. Three in particular that are ripple effects to each other are urbanization, pollution and global warming.
From 1695 – 1801 there was a 60% population growth rate. There were advancements in farming that reduced the need for farmhands. People migrated to the cities to find work and places to live; but these cities were not prepared for such an influx in such a short period of time. The main motivation for the continuous building was money; because of this, houses were built quickly, cheaply and as many as possible. There we’re no bathrooms, toilets or running water. Many didn’t bathe because it was easier than collecting water from a local pump to do so in a tin bath. There was a courtyard between each row of houses for waste to be thrown out. Sanitation and hygiene barely existed and throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the great fear was a cholera, typhus or typhoid epidemic. These issues weren’t address for the same reason they existed in the first place; money. Wealthy men owned the factories and mines and had huge influence in the cities, the laws that were in place were not carried out, the wealthy were not affected so any improvements to them would be lost profits.
This was the start of the next environmental impact pollution. Human contamination of the earth's atmosphere has existed since humans first began to use fire for heating, cooking, and agriculture, approximately one-half million years ago. The industrial community is the greatest source of pollution in the United States. During eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, pollution became a major problem with the introduction of the factory system. “The substitution of hand labor by machine labor led to dramatic rises in productivity, the application of power to industrial processes, and the use of the railroad by way of steam engine, all helped to accelerate the pollution problem.”
Industries are divided into three groups: Primary industries like mining and smelting, secondary industries like automobile factories and tertiary industries like advertisement companies. These three groups are distinctive regarding the amount of pollution produced in their operations; but, the largest impact from pollution is produced within the secondary industries. Many of the largest polluters come from the chemical, pesticide, oil refining, petrochemical, metal smelting, iron and steel, and food processing industries; they are affecting our air and water.
Air Pollution
In the past, companies had been able to regard the air, land, and water as free goods. Nixon signed the Clean Air Act, a landmark law designed to reduce air pollution. Air pollution comes from the burning of fuel. It first became a concern in the 1850s when English companies emitted noxious pollutants from their chimneys. Power plants and factories, steam engines and cars are the major causes of high levels of carbon dioxide. Air pollution produces smog. Smog reduces sunlight and therefore photosynthesis, which stresses plants. Air pollution causes respiratory problems and disease in human beings. For example, in London 1952, smog killed four thousand people. It also produces acid rain. Acid rain destroys vegetation and the microbes in soil; not to mention the chemical corrosion of buildings and statues. It also contaminates our water.
Water Pollution Water covers 70% of the earth. A healthy lake has a pH of 6.5. If it gets to pH 4, the lake is dead; A healthy ocean has a pH of 8.2. When there is too much H+ this causes fish eggs not to hatch, which leads to the decrease in fish and less food for us and other species. Other sources of water pollution are industrial waste (heavy metals, phosphates, asbestos, etc.), fertilizers and pesticides, untreated sewage, oil spills, dumping in oceans, and underground storage leakage. This pollution leads to diseases such as cholera and typhoid from microorganisms, and sometimes even death.
Environmental Movement
Environmentalism is political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities; through the adoption of forms of political, economic, and social organization. The first major wave of national environmental legislation came in the mid-1960s. “In 1963, they passed the Clean Air Act. This encouraged cooperative programs by state and local government to prevent and control air pollution. In 1964, the Wilderness Act was passed. This preserved nine million acres of wilderness in the western states. In 1965, the Water Quality Act was passed. This required states to establish and enforce water quality standards and in 1968, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and National Scenic Trails Act were passed. WSRA designated 8 rivers for immediate inclusion and 27 others to be evaluated. NSTA designated Pacific Crest and Appalachian trails as first two national scenic trails.” In June 1969 Cuyahoga River caught fire after some oil-soaked debris was ignited. Six months earlier, a thick oil slick had washed over the beaches of Santa Barbara, California and blacken forty miles of scenic coastline. Because of these two events the 1970’s became the year the environmental movement really took off and began to have an impact on our national policy and our daily lives.
1970’s
On April 22, nearly 20 million people, participated in rallies and teach-ins around the country to celebrate the first Earth Day. “June 1970 The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is established to provide citizens with the tools to draft environmental laws and lobby for their passage. They passed the National Environmental Policy Act, sometimes referred to as the "environmental Magna Carta,” which required federal agencies to prepare "environmental impact statements" of projects; established the Council on Environmental Quality and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which authorized EPA to promote the recovery and recycling of solid wastes.” In 1976, the Toxic Substances Control Act was passed and it required manufacturers to test products for risk to human health or the environment before marketing them. By the end of the decade, more than eight thousand pieces of environmental legislation were introduced in Congress. In 1980, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) was passed. This is a set up fund to clean up abandoned hazardous waste dumps and toxic spills; made dumpers and owners responsible for cleanup costs and in 1990 they revamped the Clean Air Act by reauthorizing and strengthening regulation of air pollution by the Environmental Protection Agency. In the 70s, the U.S. was a global leader on environmental protection; but despite the nation's progress in reducing pollution, at the end of the 1990s sixty-two million Americans lived in places that did not meet federal standards for either clean air or clean water. In modern society, for some reason environmental issues have taken a back seat again. There’s no wide bipartisan support and this country is moving like molasses to address what scientists feel is our biggest environmental issue today, climate change. Because we are not willing to consider the long term affects to the environment such as global warming, population growth, and the exhaustion of fossil fuel resources.
Global warming
Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the earth’s oceans, land and surrounding air; another name for climate change. Incoming and outgoing solar radiation (e.g., greenhouse effect), wind and water currents, atmospheric gases, clouds, volcanic gases and human activities are the factors that helps this occur. Global warming threatens to raise ocean levels and generate violent and unpredictable weather, affecting all ecosystems (e.g., Hurricane Sandy). Global warming brings more precipitation in some areas which cause flooding, less precipitation in others, which causes the spread of deserts and change in crops. It’s melting the ice caps, which is raising the sea level; even spread diseases; because of the changes in ecosystems. Weird weather patterns and the reduction of biodiversity.
In my opinion, I feel the environment has become worse. There is still a laundry list of environmental problems facing the planet in 2016: ozone layer depletion, global warming, destruction of tropical rainforests, extinction of species, toxic and radioactive wastes. With all the advancements in technology, awareness campaigns and other sources of education on this subject, these problems should be fixed or close to it. The same reason it started is the same reason it hasn’t stopped and will continue to get worse; money. Along with money you also have convenience. We rely on cars, buses and trains to get where we need to go. The masses are not going to stop buying cars and start walking everywhere. There is more and more people being born every day and the earth is not going to get any bigger. Now a day’s people don’t have respect for their own health, so they’re not concern with yours while they’re smoking a cigarette. We know better; but we are not trained to do better. Honestly, the only way a real change will happen is if we go back to living life before the Industrial Revolution. We have to get rid of and stop using everything that is harmful to the environment.

References
History of the Modern Environmental Movement in America

http://www.pollutionissues.com/Ho-Li/Industry.html

Environmental Movement

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Environmental_Movement.aspx

Environmental Impact of the Industrial Revolution, Nov 9, 2014, Walls D.

http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/pdf/Environmental-Movement.pdf

Environmentalism Apr 22, 2011,

http://www.britannica.com/topic/environmentalism