ecological impacts of industrial revolution

8/12/2019 Ecological impacts of Industrial Revolution

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ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF

THE INDUSTRIAL

REVOLUTION

Assignment 1 : International Relations

Aryaman Mandhana

2011B1PS765P


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A B S T R A C T

Its a moral question about whether we have the right to

exterminate species.

Sir David Attenborough (Wildlife Broadcaster & Naturalist), in

BBC interview

The control of nature is a phrase conceived in arrogance,

born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when

it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of

man.Late Rachel Carson (Marine Biologist & Conservationist), in

her book,Silent Spring

Living wild species are like a library of books still unread.

Our heedless destruction of them is akin to burning the library

without ever having read its books.

John Dingell (American Politician), in his book,Balancing on

the Brink of Extinction: The Endangered Species Act and

Lessons for the Future

I, Aryaman Mandhana, have decided the topic Ecological

Impacts of the industrial revolution & the need for

Conservation today as it scares me to think of what the future

holds for mankind. We have crossed all limits and forgotten

that we are only a drop in the ocean. Four human activities:

overharvesting of plants & animals, introduction of alien

species, destruction of habitat, islandisation and pollution;

have brought the threat of extinction for ourselves as race.

Even if we bring a catastrophic end to all present life, life will

not cease to exist on earth. Earth is very resilient and will be

here, and maybe after a million years, it will again be beautifulas it once was before mankind started destroying it. Only we


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will not be here. We are not actually bringing the end of life

closer, we are only reaching out to the restart button of the

Gods. What a beautiful system,Karma.

1 . N E E D F O R C O N S E R V A T I O N O F N A T U R E

1.1 The Sixth mass extinction: the pressing threat.

Earth is on the verge of the sixth mass extinction. A mass extinction is an

event, naturally occurring or otherwise, resulting in extinction of almost

all species living species. Such an event has been known by geological

studies, to have taken place five times since the formation of Earth (4.5

billion years ago). Previously, each time the cause was naturally

occurring. For example, meteor crash that wiped out dinosaurs from the

face of earth and allowed us Humans to evolve, the most recent and

better known mass extinction. Ironically and unprecedentedly, the

current threat of mass extinction is due to the activity of one species:

humans. I will try to explain these activities and take the industrial

revolution as an example to illustrate these problems.

Mass extinction due to naturally occurring reasons has been known to

take place over a period of time (the 5thmass extinction which wiped out

dinosaurs took place over 66 million years). But the 6thmass extinction

could even take place in a day, due to maybe nuclear world war 3? Or

maybe due to less drastic reasons, it would take more time, maybe

thousands of years. But it is going to happen; it may even be too late to

stop it. The only thing we can do is try to bring back the sustainable

balance of nature.

1.2 Sensitive & wise use of technology.

Now that we understand the pressing need for conservation, I would also

like to shed some light on other aspects. A major question that arises, are

we supposed to stop doing business, stop becoming more technologically

advanced, stop progress? The answer is no. We must always try to

References

Conservation Biology: A

Primer for South Asia Bawa

K.S., Primack R.B., Oommen.

M.A. (2011)

Conservation Biology for All

Sodhi N.S. and Ehrlich P.R.

(2010)

Conservation Biology:

Foundations, Concepts,

Applications (2nd

Ed) Dyke

F.V. (2008)


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improve, technologically and otherwise. It is human nature, to control,

to conquer. Technology is not to blame for the current state of our

planet. It is the use of this technology which has created the current

situation.

1.3 Earth is not abundant in resources & land.

But we can only take so much from nature. When man first went to

space, we realized that Earth, is not abundant in resources and land as it

seems to be. There will be a time when we will have no more land to

build houses, to cultivate food. We need to keep a balance, take only as

much as we need from nature. This does not mean stopping progress. If

we constraint ourselves to a limit where it is viable for nature to

replenish and sustain itself and simultaneously provide for us, we can

innovate more. Therein lays the challenge to todays innovators, to

innovate within these constraints.

1.4 Intrinsic value of nature.

Man only sees nature as a resource. What about the intrinsic value that

nature holds? It is the mother, of all life forms. The attitude that most

humans carry towards nature is disrespectful and will eventually be

taken care of by nature. We must be scared; we must thank and respect

our land for what it gives us. Once beautiful and biologically diverse

Earth is witnessing destruction of its bio-diversity at an alarming rate,

and will be converted to a barren cyber land as illustrated in science-

fiction movies like The Matrix.

1.5 What is the need for bio-diversity?

Earth is a system. If there are no other species but humans, we will

ultimately die as we cannot survive without food, shelter, clothing all of

which comes from either plants or animals. Natural processes dependent

on bio-diversity keep the planet healthy and full of life, thus making it a

better place for us to live.


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2 . T H E P R O B L E M S

H. sapiens(the adjectivesapiens is Latin for "wise" or "intelligent")arrived on the face of the earth around 200,000 years ago as non-

efficient hunters, yet to conquer the wild and flourish as a race. Since

then, we have never stopped evolving ourselves as not only better

hunters, but better scientists, better farmers, and so on. Today we have

the efficiency of killing species at a higher rate than they can reproduce

at, and hence we are, one by one, making species extinct.

Four major human activities are responsible for bringing us closer to the

sixth mass extinction event in Earths history. These are briefly

explained in the following sections.

2.1 Destruction of Habitat in Europe.

Agriculture first started around 10,000 BC, enabling man to become

independent of the ecosystem by growing food for itself. Now, it was

possible to sustain large populations. Since then, human population

never stopped growing, till date. Ever since the Industrial Revolution in

Europe, which took place between 1760 and 1840, humans have

becoming extremely efficient and capable of sustaining very huge

populations. This can be easily verified by looking at the human world

population growth curve:

Advent of agriculture theIndustrial Revolution, and more

recently, scientific and medical

advances have led to significant

rise in population growth.

Human population is growing

exponentially higher with

scientific and medical advances.

References

U.S. Census Bureau, 2009http://www.census.gov/popula

tion/international/

Wikipedia Foundationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po

pulation_growth

State of the Planet:Documentary by David

Attenborough
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sapienshttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sapiens


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2.1.1 Agricultural Revolution.

One of the important events that led to the agricultural revolution, was

the invention of mechanical seed drill by Jethro Tull in 1708,

permitting large scale planting in rows, for easier cultivation between the

rows. At the time, seeds were distributed into furrows ('drilling') by

hand. Tull had noticed that traditional heavy sowing densities were not

very efficient, so he instructed his staff to drill at very precise, low

densities. By 1701, his frustration with their lack of cooperation

prompted him to invent a machine to do the work for him. He designed

his drill with a rotating cylinder. Grooves were cut into the cylinder to

allow seed to pass from the hopper above to a funnel below. They werethen directed into a channel dug by a plough at the front of the machine,

then immediately covered by a harrow attached to the rear. This limited

the wastage of seeding and made the crop easier to weed.

Crop yield increased, which meant that enough food was available for

people living in the cities. In Britain, wheat yields increased by about

25% between 1700 and 1800. Food prices fell, thus further fuelling the

Industrial Revolution as people had more money to spend on consumer

goods. Healthier Population meant decline in death rate, thus increase in

population rate. In the 18th century, the world human population

doubled from 5 million to 10 million.

Such a spurt in population led to increased need for food, housing and

other consumer goods. Thus, forests were cleared, to make land

available for agriculture, and for timber to build houses. Clearing of

forests is nothing but destruction of habitat of thousands of species that

make up a bio-diverse forest.

Agriculture not only directly effects the plant species that were cleared

to make land available for cultivation, but also animal species that were

directly dependent on the plants for their survival. Numerous examples

can be cited.

References

Overton, Mark; AgriculturalRevolution in England,Cambridge University Press;1996; p. 77

Wikipedia Foundationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Agricultural_Revolution


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2.1.2 Advent of charcoal as fuel.

Pre 1709, wood had been the main source of energy in Britain, used forfuel in homes and small industries. But as the demand for energy

increased, coal, which has 3 times more power than wood, started being

used as fuel. Britain fortunately had plenty of coal mines to extract coal

from. In 1700, five-sixths of the world's coal was mined in Britain.

Digging of coals from mines requires clearing of all the forest cover

above the deposits.

2 .1.3 Deforestation: Destruction of Habitat.

Increased agriculture & usage of coal as fuel were the primary causes of

deforestation in 18th century England. Deforestation is destruction of

habitat and has adverse effects on bio-diversity. Such large-scale, long-

term ecological destruction has totally transformed the Scottish

Highlands, and now only around 1% of British native pinewoods remain,

while many other habitats have been degraded or lost. All of Europes

woodlands have been influenced by humans in some way and the

ecological effects have been complex and varied.

Some ways in which deforestation does this have been summarized in

the following paragraphs.

Even if an entire forest is not cleared, but only a part of it is to use for

cultivation, it creates a boundary in between the natural habitat i.e. the

forest. This effect is called islandisation and can have many adverse

effects on the biodiversity of that ecosystem. Now, it could be treated as

two different islands or patches, rather than one ecosystem. This is a

threat to many species in many different ways. One example is the silver

spotted skipper (butterfly) found in England. Due to islandisation, this

species becomes isolated to the land it is residing in. It cannot move to

another land as there would be a human induced barrier between its

natural habitat, thus making it very difficult for the butterfly to go into

References

The Character of theIndustrial Revolution inEngland, Wrigley EA

Wikipedia Foundationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co

al#Early_uses_as_fuel


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another region. This makes mating difficult, and if there is a disease in

that area, those species cannot escape to a new region. Another example

is the Ant Bird, which depends on military ants for food. It follows

military ants wherever they go, but if the military ants run out of insects

to eat in a particular island of habitat, they shall simply cross over to a

new land, but unfortunately these birds cannot do the same as they are

psychologically used to dark shadowy areas of the forest. Thus are forced

to stay back and eventually die of starvation.

Not only has woodland cover been lost, but overgrazing in the remnants

has also selected out the most palatable species, especially aspen, holly,

rowan and juniper, which in turn affects the specialist species that

depend on them. Native woodland remnants are therefore less diverse

than they would otherwise be.

2.2 Ecological impacts of colonization.

As the Industrial Revolution increased yields by making industries in

Europe more efficient, there arose a need to find newer, bigger markets

to supply. Hence, Britain and many other European nations like Spain,

Portugal, Netherlands, all started colonizing markets and eventually

entire countries across the world. Many people like traders, managers,

government officials from these European countries were stationed life-

long at the colonies to conduct and control trade. For example, The

British East India Company in India.

2.2.1 Introduction of Foreign Species to colonies & vice-versa.

With foreigners, came foreign species too. Their domestic pets, for

example. Even vice-versa, taking exotic species from the colonies back to

Europe happened.

If an exotic species is introduced into a land of native species, it could

possibly have many advantages over the native species, as it has notundergone the ecological process of co-evolution with the rest of the

References

Bio-diversity & itsConservation in India Sharad Singh Negi

Cheetah Conservation Fund(CFC) resources


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ecosystem like the native species has. This means that it could maybe not

have a predator to keep its population under control. Or maybe it is

simply faster than the native species and hence is able to thrive better on

the same land. It is directly or indirectly competing with the native

species for resources and land. Disease brought by exotic species, against

which the native species may not have immunity is another reason for

loss in bio diversity of native species.

2.2.2 Excessive hunting.

Colonization was more than just international business. It carried with

it a perverted attitude of superiority and racism. This can be clearly seen

by the activities of the British in India like the hunting of tigers for sick

pleasure and human slavery. During the British rule in India, animals

like cheetah, lion and tiger reached the threshold of extinction due to

excessive hunting, either for pleasure or for their skins/leather.

2.2.3 Examples.

Many examples can be cited where due to introduction of exotic species,

native species have ceased to exist and there has been great loss in bio-

diversity in those areas. The best example is the island of Hawaii. As

mentioned previously, the environmental impacts of human activities

can be best observed on islands. More than 90% of the native species of

plants and animals have been replaced by exotic species brought from

Europe by the British and Spanish in the 18thcentury. Another famous

example is of the Dodo bird, which was found only on the island of

Mauritius, became extinct due to excessive hunting and introduction of

pigs, which were brought to Mauritius by Europeans to eat. Pigs ate

Dodo eggs, thus these two reasons together drove the Dodo to

extinction.

Let us take up the example of extinction of Cheetah due to hunting by

the British in India into more detail. Due to the decrease in Cheetah

population, the deer population increases. This leads to overgrazing of

grasslands, which otherwise could have been used for grazing cattle.


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Less area for cattle to graze directly effects agricultural yield. Sure,

cheetah may eat livestock and cause loss, but cheetah has equal right to

search for prey as we humans do. If livestock is managed and

maintained properly, this loss too can be easily minimized, as is being

done in Botswana. We cannot take everything for ourselves and leave

nothing for others. Eco-tourism can also be a potential reason to save

Cheetah.

2.3 Pollution.

Pollution is a major human activity contributing to the sixth mass

extinction event. Pollution refers to air pollution, by any gas that is not

present in the air at its natural amount. We will specifically discuss

carbon dioxide as it is the leading air pollutant, especially by industries.

2.3.1 Global Warming.

Global warming refers to an increase in average temperature of the

Earth due to increase in the carbon dioxide gas levels in the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide, or CO2 traps the sunlight and thus warms Earth. It is

essential to maintain the temperature suitable for life on Earth. In the

past, due to naturally occurring events, the level of CO2 has fluctuated to

both extremes, thus causing mass extinctions.

Global warming poses a threat as many species will not be able to

survive in an elevated temperature. Also, it could result in melting of

caps and thus loss of land, floods in the polar regions. Remains of large

mammals have been found deep in the North Sea above Europe, thusindicating that this sea was once land.

2.3.2 London: The Big Smoke.

London was infamous for its combinations of smoke and fog, combined

in the word smog, and therefore earned the nickname the Big Smoke.

All major cities suffered from smoke pollution and Edinburghs

nickname, Auld Reekie refers partly to the sanitary situation of the

town as well as to smoke pollution. The effects of air pollution brought


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cities to a halt, disrupting traffic but more dangerously also causing

death rates to rise. During a week of smog in 1873 killed over 700 people

in London. However, the largest air pollution disaster in Britain was the

Great London Smog of December 1952 which killed approximately

4,000 people.

Due to increasing industrialization in the 18thcentury & 19thcentury

England, there was a string of Parliamentary Acts in the mid-19thcentury

designed to do something about the polluting effects of industries and

domestic smoke.

Following the Great London Smog legislation was introduced and the

first Clean Air Act was passed in 1956 which moved power stations and

heavy industry to more rural sites. The reduction of domestic and

industrial coal burning and the use of smokeless coals has led to a

reduction in the levels of emission of sulphur dioxide, one of the main

contributors to acid rain, the emissions falling between 1970 and 1994 by

60 % in British cities. Similar developments can be observed in many

industrialised countries.

2.3.3 The impact of the Steam Engine.

The industrial use of steam power started with Thomas Savery in 1698.

He constructed and patented in London the first engine. It was not a

success as it could lift water up from very limited height and was prone

to boiler explosions thus rendering it unsafe for use.

The first successful and safe steam engine was made by ThomasNewcomen in 1712. A total of 1,454 engines had been made by 1800,

spread across Europe.

In 1775, James Watt made his steam engine which was very successful

commercially as it could be used to directly drive the rotary machinery of

a factory or a mill, a feature missing in Newcomens steam engines.

References

ttp://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/files/crafts.pdf


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As you can see, the development of steam engines greatly boosted the

Industrial Revolution, especially in transportation: railway & ships.

Steam engines used coal to make iron, which was further used in making

machines, build bridges, railroads and ships.

Construction of the rail network in Britain

References

http://www1.umassd.edu/ir/resources/britishindustries/growthofbritishrailwaynetwork18301900.pdf

John Langton and R. J.Morris, eds., Atlas ofIndustrializing Britain, 1780-1914, New York: Methuen &Co., 1986, p. 77

John Langton and R. J.Morris, Atlas of IndustrializingBritain, 1780-1914, New York:Methuen & Co., 1986, p. 79.


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3 . A N A L Y S I S & C O N C L U S I O N

As can be clearly understood from looking at the statistics on

environment depletion from the Industrial Revolution, industrialization

has majorly impacted bio-diversity and poses us with a threat of

extinction. The following are the conclusions and respective analysis I

have drawn from this research:

3.1 Technology needs to shake hands with Conservation

Only if every piece of technology built by mankind could be refined

keeping in mind conservation and the environment, the balance of

nature could be sustained. Using technology is not what is causing these

problems, it is the excessive use and unaware use of technology.


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3.2 Technology must not be used without knowledge of use

Many farmers for example, would argue that they know very well how to

cultivate, if some conservationist tried to tell them the correct way of

using some equipment. This is not an ego battle that the conservationist

is trying to play. The conservationist may not know how to cultivate as

well as the farmers do, and the conservationist never hints at that. But

fact is that technology has been misused by humans out of greed or lack

of knowledge and this has in fact as we have seen from our study of the

Industrial Revolution, brought about many complex and varied impacts

on the environment.

3.3 Harmonious standardizing

I strongly believe that the farmer, the technologist, the conservationist

and the government should harmoniously come together to form a

platform that ensures standardized practices across the world. Just as

the farmer probably knows farming better than the conservationist so

does the conservationist know the environment better than the farmer.

It is not a matter of who knows more or who is important. That is theessence of conservation: nature is more important.

This not only applies to the field of agriculture, for every field of human

activity, most importantly industries. New innovations need to come up

under ecological constraints. This is missing today. When technology is

made, the environment is rarely thought about. Only later, does it come

into the picture if something wrong happens. If ecological constraints

are known to technologists, they shall from the beginning open

themselves to a different line of thought. This can only be achieved via

harmonious standardizing and coming together of conservationists,

technologists, users, and the government.

ecological impacts of industrial revolution

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