Rise if the Industrial Revolution

¶ … rise if the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, the social, political, and technological changes have inexorably changed the earth's environment in numerous ways. The 20th century, in fact, has seen incredible dramatic changes in so many areas (economic, political, and cultural) that a once segmented and structured global environment is moving closer and closer to a one-world concept. This idea, globalism, is more of an economic and cultural reality of the 21st century than political, but refers to a paradigm in which we must change our approach to thinking about the world from one of isolated incidents to one of a complex web of merged and interdependent variables; all tied together in a way that is often not quantifiable, but is still visible and part of the new global reality. So many technological changes, in fact, have occurred that bring the world closer that telecommunications, the Internet, and cellular technology means that borders really mean less and less as time goes by. We must think of this paradigm shift as more of an umbrella of environmental change, with literally dozens of effects because of the shift -- almost a string or chaos theory of modern life.

We now know that there are grand, macro-processes that occur in nature that are of such complex nature that we cannot yet fully understand them; geological, climatological functions being the most apparent examples. We also know that human activity particularly that of humans after the 17th century and burgeoning population has the ability to radically transform local and regional issues into state and international problems. Pollution, for instance, in rivers or from factories in one country is not isolated to that country. and, as humans became more and more industrialized, the combination of these effects has contributed to very serious global issues like overpopulation, scarcity of resources, global warming, and pollution (Levin Institute, inclusive). Indeed, pollution is certainly not a new issue on the global front, nor is it strictly artificial and caused by humans. We now know that contaminants have been introduced into the earth's environment from processes like volcanic activity for eons. As well, from evidence collected from prehistoric dump sites, through the blatant release of literally tons of toxins in the air and water during and after the Industrial Revolution, to the modern problems associated with larger populations and excess wastes, there is a clear and quantifiable negative impact from humans upon the earth (Markham, 1994). This may be better understood by thinking of the earth as an organism itself, the so-called Gaia idea, in which the complex systems of the earth's forest may be seen as the respiratory system, etc. When one thinks of the earth in this manner, it is easy to identify environmental changes that impact both the course of human and natural history (Lovelock, 2010, 1-14).

The idea of Global Warming, for instance, while still hotly debated as a direct cause of human carbon emissions, is termed as a gradual increase in the overall median temperature of both the atmosphere and oceans at a given altitude or depth. The complexity lies in the data, only accurately measured since the mid-20th century, which clearly shows a gradual increase. This is typically attributed to the number of automobiles and factories, with a prediction of environmental effects that have the potential of being fatal to life as we know it. Certainly, since the 1950s there have been more greenhouse gases produced than at any past time. But it is the variation in solar and volcanic activity that present variables that we do not have adequate data with which to measure trends over geologic time (eons instead of centuries). In addition, there is the very real possibility that if there is robust melting of the polar glaciers, the ocean levels will rise, resulting in the disruption of global agriculture. For the human population, this would be a serious action. Because of unplanned temperature changes and a reduction in agriculture, human health would drastically decline (Houghton, 2009).

Too, if one views the planet earth as a living organism, or Gaia, then environmental factors clearly impact social, political and economic issues. Too, taking the Gaia concept a bit further, if we look upon the world as a Global Village, with some areas that have plenty of water, and other places that are continually experiencing a shortage. This issue is far more serious than most in the developed world know, since it rarely impacts them directly. The World Health Organization estimates that at least 15% of the world human population in non-developed countries lacks access to potable water. Because of this, at least 1/2 of the world's poor populations are infected with one or more of the main viral or parasitic diseases associated with rank or polluted water (Briscoe, Postel and de Villiers) . Changes in global population growth, unwise agricultural policies, and rapid and unchecked overdevelopment have skewed this balance to the point where almost 1 billion people lack access to safe water, resulting in almost 4 million deaths due to water related diseases annually. Ironically, less than 1% of the total fresh water globally is available for daily and direct human consumption. This is quite dramatic when one considers that a single American who takes a 5-minute shower uses more what than an individual in much of the developing world uses in an entire day. This is a crisis that must be addressed, if it is not, over the next two decades the average supply of water per person will drop by over 30%, condemning millions of people and animals to death (Atlas of a Thirsty Planet).