Industrial revolution (Blog #10)

Perhaps what bothers me most about the Industrial Revolution is its complete disregard for the environment and the people and animals that would suffer in the name of progress. I understand the need for alternative fuels to help account for the energy crisis due to rapidly growing populations, but I do not understand how this need could trump environmental protection; specifically of waterways and air quality. It is no surprise to me that this revolution led to water pollution that created waterways to be unusable. ‘The massive extraction of nonrenewable raw materials to feed and to fuel industrial machinery-coal, iron ore, petroleum, and much more-altered the landscape in many place. Sewers and industrial waste emptied into rivers, turning them into poisonous cesspools’ (Strayer, 568). This chapter made me question how different the world would be today if the Industrial revolution was created around a society that supported and cared for the environment as much as they did progress and capital. This revolution set the tone for other countries and the standards for progress; everything suffered at the hands of “human progress”, including humans. While not all aspects of the industrial revolution were harmful, for example it created the three social classes; it had devastating effects on those living in poverty as well as the environment. It was sad for me to see that India took to the industrial revolution after winning their independence from Britain and the death of Gandhi; even after Gandhi had spent so much time explaining the harmful effects that it would create for such a large nation to be as industrial as England. ‘Across the river from the site in New Delhi where Gandhi was cremated in 1948, a large power plant belched black smoke’ (Strayer, 567). This just goes to show how important progress is to humans all around the world.