Week Seven

The Industrial Revolution marked a huge turning point in not only the history of mankind, but of the planet Earth.  Prior to the Revolution, global population grew from approximately 375 million people in 1400 to 1 billion in 1800 (828).  As the number of people using them grew, wood and charcoal supplies became fewer and costs rose.  With these main sources of energy becoming scarcer, an energy crisis emerged.  The Industrial Revolution came in part as a response to this energy crisis as nonrenewable fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, became the new main source of energy (828).

The excessive extraction of these nonrenewable materials from the earth drastically changed the landscape in many areas of the world and has left an impact on the planet that has lasted to today.  Strayer writes of environmental impact on London during the Industrial Revolution, “Sewers and industrial waste emptied into the rivers, turning them into poisonous cesspools…. Smoke from the coal-fired industries and domestic use polluted the air in urban areas and sharply increased the incidence of respiratory illness” (828).  While environmental conditions have become better as scientific knowledge and priorities on preserving the environment have grown, the impact that the Industrial Revolution had on the earth is still prevalent today.  Because of this, many historians agree that the Industrial Revolution marks a new era in the history of humankind and of the planet.  Scientists call this era the Anthropocene, or “the age of man,” in which human activity began to leave a lasting mark on the atmospheric, ecological, and geological history of the earth (829).