Environmental Impact of Industrialization

Environmental Impact of Industrialization

                                                                

                                                              

                             



The onset of the Industrial Revolution in the mid 1700’s and early 1800’s brought upon new methods of manufacturing products in Western society. These new technological advancements included factories and machinery, which ran mostly on the energy produced from burning coal and natural gases. These factories were used to mass produce products that proved useful for people during these times, but what people couldn’t see, was how detrimental the emissions were to the environment. While it was nice to have access to new technology and more job opportunities in factories, the effects of burning these fossil fuels had far greater consequences, that we are just starting to experience now. 

According to ourworldindata.org, in 1900, approximately 2 billion tons of CO₂ had been emitted globally. In 2017, the global emissions of CO₂ soared to over 40 billion tons. In just 117 years, humans have exponentially increased the amount of carbon dioxide gas we produce by 20 times. In effect, the increase in carbon dioxide has caused the average global temperature to rise steadily each year. This is due to the greenhouse effect, which leads to global warming. Global warming has been an issue for a long time, but we are just starting to realize how dangerous things could potentially get for us. If the average earth temperature keeps increasing, it will cause the melting of the polar ice caps. This will lead to an increase in sea levels, which could harm island and coastal cities globally. Not only that, but the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere will make oceans more acidic (as oceans absorb 25% of atmospheric CO₂ each year), which will cause the death of coral reefs and underwater ecosystems. Evidently, if we continue to expel as much CO₂ into the atmosphere as we do now, we will be endangering thousands of plant and animal species, wasting earth’s natural resources (coal, natural gas, trees, oil) and making the planet much more dangerous for future generations.

Citations

Ritchie, Hannah, and Max Roser. “CO₂ and Other Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” Our World in Data, ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions.