When Industry Meets the Environment

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The Global Environment

When Industry Meets The Environment

The culture of industry has totally changed the way we see the world around us; from the structure within our cities, to the degradation of the natural environment.

The industrial revolution began in Britain in 1760 (Griffin). Many historians claim this happened because of a civil unrest in the country, which transformed into a movement (Landes). Civil unrest stemmed from the poor living condition and the poverty within the area. This also happened because new technologies emerged, creating a new push for a commercial way of life. The largest component of the revolution was the use of machines instead of doing work by hand. This is especially true for the manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, use of water and steam power, and the change from burning wood for energy to burning coal for energy. The United States, in the attempt to stay a leading world power, soon caught onto the revolution in the early 1830's, and expanded technologies throughout the 1840's (Landes). In the early 1830's, industry was mainly isolated to areas with fast-moving bodies of water. However, this soon changed in 1840-1870, during the “second” industrial revolution: bringing with it large-scale technological production (McNeil).

This image was taken from History.org. It depicts the industrial insides of the for motor company

A large cultural impact of the industrial revolution has been the increase in urbanization. Large factories needed the use of man power to watch over, and sometimes control, the machinery. Many families would move to the center of the town, near these industries so that they could have a better chance of finding a job. This is especially true during the firs...

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Works Cited

Landes, David S. (1969). The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present. Cambridge, New York: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-09418-6.

Griffin, Emma (2010). Short History of the British Industrial Revolution. Palgrave.

McNeil, Ian, ed. An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology (1996), 1063pp

Mantoux, Paul (First English translation 1928, revised 1961). "The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century"

Shenker, Jack. "Exodus." Prospect Magazine. N.p., 17 Nov. 2010. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. .

Tesoro Corporation. "Tesoro Refinery." N.p., 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.

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