The Industrial Revolution

As it is always said, need is the mother of invention, mans increasing needs

leads him always to study problems and find new ideas, concepts, theories or inventions.

Before the eighteenth century, most people in Europe and other parts of the world were

dependent mainly on agriculture, fishing or trade as their means of living (Ahuti, S. 2015).

However, the advent of the eighteenth century marked massive developments of

machinery in Europe and especially in Britain which radically transformed the shape of

their economies from an agricultural one to industrial materialistic one (Ahuti, S. 2015).

The Industrial Revolution started in Britain in 1700s and after that it spread in other

European countries along with the USA (Ahuti, S. 2015). The development of industry

and means of transportation in those countries have created material wealth to them

(Gulzar, A. 2015). However, due to this transition to industry, many people who live in

rural areas immigrated to live in urban areas and this led to over crowdedness of urban

areas. Thus, it could be argued that the Industrial Revolution is the main reason behind

globalization and many of the environmental issues that we face today.

The Industrial Revolution has led to reorganizing production, demographic

activities and relations on a global scale (Ahuti, S. 2015). Moreover, the Industrial

Revolution was accompanied by a huge consumption of fuel and especially coal and then

oil. The more the industries, the more the use of fuel (Chandrappa, R., Gupta, R., &

Kulshrestha, U. 2011).However, the intensive use of oil in industries and transportation

have led to CO2 emissions which is reported to be a direct cause of global warming, sea

level rise and climate change (Chandrappa, R., Gupta, R., & Kulshrestha, U. 2011).Thus,

the Industrial Revolution is the root cause behind global warming and its associated
environmental problems including the distinction of many species of animals and birds,

the melting of the polar ice, sea level rise, rising tides and strong storms such as Tsunami

(Chandrappa, R., Gupta, R., & Kulshrestha, U. 2011).

Moreover, growth of firms, immigration of population across countries and

development of means of transportation have given rise to the emergence of globalization

which started in the late 19th century (Davut, 2008). This is because industrialization has

helped to multiply production and to minimize the prices of finished products in a dramatic

way. When the home markets of industrialized nations were saturated with products, they

thought of shipping their goods to developing countries which were colonies to the

industrialized nations at the last half of the 19 th century (Davut, 2008). Then, massive

production in the 20th centuries led many companies to expand worldwide and this led to

what we know today as globalization (Davut, 2008).

However, the industrial revolution and globalization have many negative impacts

including the intensive use of traditional fossil fuel which result in air pollution and global

warming (Davut, 2008). CO2 emissions is increasingly due to burning of fossil fuels and

this leads to climate change, melting of the polar ice and many harmful diseases to people

(Davut, 2008).

In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution has clear associations with the current

concept of globalization and environmental degradation. This is because the massive

growth of production has led many companies to expand their production in other

countries, however, this intensive production is accompanied by intensive consumption

of fuel which led to pollution of the air, global warming and climate change.
References :

Ahuti, S. (2015). Industrial Growth & Environmental Degradation, Journal of

Environmental Science, Vol. 1., Issue 5.,

http://ierj.in/journal/index.php/ierj/article/viewFile/56/48

Davut. (2008). Industrial Revolution : Impetus Behind the Globalization Process,

Yonetim Ekonomi,

http://www2.bayar.edu.tr/yonetimekonomi/dergi/pdf/C15S22008/31_48.pdf

Gulzar, A. (2015). Impact of Industrial Revolution on Management Thought, Sukkur IBA,

http://sijmb.iba-suk.edu.pk/downloads/2015/SIJMB-Y15V2I1A1.pdf