How Did The Industrial Revolution Affect The Environment

As mankind moves into the Industrial Revolution, technology and society advances sevenfold. This revolution began to improve the lives of everyday people through the betterment of public lives. Inventions, such as light bulbs, were created to try and help the everyday people and give advantages to everyone. As the Industrial Revolution continued, however, the inventors whose creations were meant to improve the lives of people, instead went on to damage the lives of people and fuel the growing Capitalism that was consuming so many countries. Inventions such as the cotton gin, steam engine, and production line would have effects on the public, but not in a positive way. These main inventions of this era instead were used to mass produce materials as to

improve flourishing economies.

These inventions did accomplishment their goals, but had numerous side effects on the common people that they set out to improve. The already pollute airways was increased drastically due to the creation of numerous factories in cities. Also, with the use of production lines in factories, many job positions opened up in cities. However, these jobs came with low pay, long hours, and horrendous working conditions. This boom of inventions set out to improve the lives of humans as well as starting the trend of having new technology solve the world's problems. With the improvement of human living conditions being mediocre, nature and agriculture were both affected in two different ways.

Although the damages to the environment during the Industrial Revolution are bad, it is the effects that stem from the start of this revolution. The Industrial Revolution is the spark that leads to our society

becoming more focused on creating technology than agriculture. Although agriculture remains prevalent to this day, it is only do to the technological advancements that have been made with agriculture. Inventions such as tractors, plows, and even barbed wire greatly affect agriculture and livestock to this day. People without these inventions were forced to have more workers and work harder just to survive. But now with these new inventions, agriculturalists were able to not work as hard or they were able to expand their land to have more crops. The goal of improving the public's way of living is a success when it comes to agriculturalists, but is it for everyone else? The expansion of agricultural ability leads to a larger quantity and diverse range of foods. This sounds great for everyone, but as food supply increases, so does the population. That quantity of food was also shortened in the United States as waves of immigrants from Europe arrived due to religious persecution and seeking work. With these technologies that improved food supply, came chemical solutions such as DDT. Although these chemicals were originally thought to protect plants from insects, they were later discovered to be a major cause of many diseases such as Cancer through the novel Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Although the goal and improvement of food supply was accomplished, the overall effects of this wave of technological advancement proved poorly for the public, as well for nature.
When I was thinking about the many technological improvements to the world, I never was able to think of an invention that benefitted nature. The new expanding cities led to habitat loss, the invention of power saws led to the loss of habitat and death of species, and the creation of transportation and electricity has led to the rise of greenhouse gases and climate change. All of these inventions have one thing in common; to improve the lives of humans. However, none of these inventions has improved the lives of animals or plants. Even certain immunizations and treatments that are used on animals only exist because at one point they were needed by humanity. Even the founding and creation of nature preserves only exists to protect nature from the damage that has occurred because of humans. The reason that no improvement has ever been done to nature is because before humans dominated the Earth, nature was in its most perfect form. The reason that foragers never sought to make improvements to nature was because no improvements were needed. Nature was able to effectively purify its waters, sort out its own populations through predator prey interactions. The world was self sufficient and was in no need of help. That is why it is important to correct people when they say that technology is created to improve the world. It is not created to improve the world, it is created to improve humanity.