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21 February 2017
Was the Air Pollution Caused by the Industrial Revolution more Damaging to the Environment
Understanding the causes of certain events can help to bring about change preventing
these mistakes from continuing in the future.The process of industrialization, beginning in 1750
and lasting through the early 1900s, introduced a number of inventions revolutionizing the way
tasks were performed while also setting a new high in all forms of pollution, particularly that of
the air. While the effects of industrialization were experienced throughout the civilized world, no
other region felt the effects as dramatically as Europe, specifically Britain. The countries in
which the revolution were rooted not only experienced major economic differences but also
witnessed heavy ecological changes, which prove to have been detrimental to the environment as
their impact is still felt today. The air pollution resulting from the Industrial Revolution was more
The surge in usage of highly polluting machines made possible air pollution on a massive
scale for the first time in history, making the damage done more impactful. The industrial
revolution is marked by the quick advancements in technology taking place during that time; the
speed at which the innovations occurred being as new as the inventions themselves, new
factories appearing as if built overnight. Before the industrial age air pollution was present but a
significantly less prevalent aspect of the everyday lives of individuals, but with the beginning of
the industrial revolution pollution became a normal aspect of life being in some cases
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romanticized. Matthew Osborn states, the pollution from coal smoke was a sign of progress
(Osborn 253). Cities at this time viewed the smoke from factories in cities to be indicative of
development, creating a kind of bizarre competition between cities, the darkest skies being
revered in a way. Not only was the pollution noticeable, it was so pronounced that it became a
marker for progress in this time period, an indicator that is still widely recognized as being a
defining feature of the premodern era. The fact that the visible changes made to the environment
were so distinctly impactful to people is evidence that the pollution of the air to this extreme was
something novel to this period, so much so that it created significant interest of the public,
though the response was misdirected. The industrial age marked the first time of extreme rises in
pollution going from previously insignificant amounts of pollution being released into the air
through the burning of wood for heat to the systematic production of smoke through the use of
fossil fuels to both power machinery and heat buildings. As industrialization in europe
progressed fossil fuels, particularly coal, were increasingly used in everyday life doing
everything from the menial work of heating homes, formerly done with wood, to powering the
new machinery that was quickly taking over european cities in the form of factories. As
explained by Alfred D. Chandler Jr., what did make their impact so profound was the massive
application of a new source of power and heat to the processes of production. These innovations
permitted a fossil fuel, coal, to replace the traditional sources (Chandler 34). Prior to the pre
modern era fossil fuels were a largely untapped resource, but after their introduction with the
industrial revolution they exploded in popularity, quickly replacing any and all other resources,
leaving humans with a dependency only growing stronger into current times. Fossil fuels are
inherently incredibly polluting, there is no way around this fact, and so naturally when they were
first introduced there was a corresponding increase in pollution. While this increase occurred in
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all types of pollution, none were quite as drastic as that of the air. The primary fossil fuel used at
this time was coal and the only way energy can be released from this source is by burning. The
black smoke created by the burning of coal is transferred quite quickly into the air making it
visibly more polluted. Environmental change of this time period is so significant historically
because never before had pollution of this scale taken place. Never before had entire cities and
even countries fallen victim to the black smoke plaguing the skies of europe at the time. Never
before had a source of energy as productive as it is destructive taken over so thoroughly as fossil
fuels did. The most prevalent aspect of this change was the fact that it had never been done
before. There was no prior knowledge of a takeover such as this and so everything that occurred
was entirely unique with nothing to base it off of and nothing to give an idea of how something
would come to play out. Had the people of the premodern era had a past case of rises in pollution
such as this they would have had the resources to figure out ways to combat these issues before
they arose or could have been more aware of them as they occurred, and that is the defining
aspect of the ecological change in this period. The fact that they had no way of predicting the
scale of what would actually occur, while every following time period had knowledge of the type
The damages caused by pollution resulting from industrialization would set a standard
followed by future time periods regarding the extent of detrimental changes they would allow in
the environment. With the rapid change in how tasks were being handled, innovations in energy
sources have created what is seen as a necessary standard reaching the peak of efficiency, but
efficient is not the word to use. It has been proven that greenhouse gasses thicken the
atmosphere and passively destroy the planet. As Alfred D. Chandler Jr. asserts, The process in
which production and distribution, while expanding productivity and lowering costs bringing a
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final and possibly fatal dependency on fossil fuels, have created a need for a third industrial
revolution (Chandler 33). The third revolution hes talking about would include more
innovations in energy resources like how the first industrial revolution changed the way people
consume energy (fossil fuels) but inevitably throwing the environment under the bus, so not as
stability. Just the air alone currently has AQI levels, an index measurement of air pollution, in
Europe that are on the edge of safe, moderate to highly dangerous, and South and East Asia have
reached hazardous levels. These are areas where modernization has consumed the region,
industrial businesses are continuing, and yet no one has proposed an effective solution to shrink
these numbers. The standard which was created for efficient product output has subjected the
atmosphere to dangerous amounts of greenhouse gasses, with companies making multiple efforts
to bypass restrictions set to reduce these emissions through carbon trade. Referring to a
londoners report of the state of their city during the first industrial revolution, in 1894, David
Stradling and Peter Thorsheim states, In addition to harming flowers, trees, and food crops, air
pollution and disfigured and eroded stone and iron monuments, buildings, and bridges. Of
greatest concern to many contemporaries, however, was the effect that smoke had on human
health. Respiratory disease, especially tuberculosis, bronchitis, pneumonia, and asthma, were
serious public health problems in late-nineteenth-century Britain and the United States
(Stradling & Thorsheim 8). From the very beginning, when industrialization did not even make
an effort to prevent public health issues, the detrimental effects of the output had been too severe
for most living things having some exposure to these conditions. This carelessness has been
somewhat looked at for human needs but the responsibility toward environmental safety has
been more or less glanced over with a perspective lacking in heedfulness. The ignorance carried
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out and continuing in this day from companies purposefully searching for loopholes to increase
production only elevates evidence that the ever-present ideology of act now and ask questions
later has and will continue to hinder upon progress to a healthier world. Only when these
efficient and safe form of industrialization understanding how destructive this human endeavor
has been been to the world and strives to lessen the divide between human and nature created by
The air pollution that occurred as a result of industrial has been worse environmentally
than that caused by any other time period. This is not to say that industrialization should have
never occurred but that people should make more of an effort to promote change in order to
prevent continual damage to the environment. If the issues from many hundreds of years ago that
can be controlled are still occurring, even to a somewhat smaller scale, there is a deeper problem
that may be rooted deep in the stubbornness and pride of humans to take an honest reflection of
past events and consider multiple perspectives. While this wasnt the era with the largest amount
of air pollution , it had been the largest spike in history. This development of human innovation
had begun the ever growing avalanche of the destructive force by people that continues to pile on
and on till it finally makes the final blow leaving nothing left but the reminders of the mistakes
that could have been stopped. Understanding the paths that certain events had taken to bring it to
where it is now can help to produce change preventing these mistakes from continuing in the
future.
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Works Cited
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. 33, no. 8, 1980, pp. 3350.,
www.jstor.org/stable/3823248.
Matthew Osborn. The Weirdest of All Undertakings: The Land and the Early Industrial
Revolution in Oldham, England. Environmental History, vol. 8, no. 2, 2003, pp. 246
269., www.jstor.org/stable/3985711.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. 33, no. 8, 1980, pp. 3350.,
www.jstor.org/stable/3823248.