19 Resource Developmentand Environment: Global Scenario since Industrial Revolution

Mr. Dhiren Borisa

Learning Objectives:

 After studying this unit you should be able to:

• The geographical bases of industrialization and its spread
• The emergence of fossil fuels and the global consumption as propelling the industrial age and the ‘modern’ lifestyle
• The relationship between industrialization and the global changes in population and emergent demand on finite resources
• The nature of resources in use and the pressures on environment – the question of sustainability

Learning Outcomes:

After completing the chapter, you will be able to comprehend –

7.1 Introduction

History and geography of human kind is also the story of resources consumption. It is the history of development of various tangible and intangible resources that have propelled the course of human growth and development at different points of time. From the consumption of wood, wind and water in the pre-industrial phase as primary sources of energy to the ushering in of the fossil fuel consumption with emergence of coal, petroleum and natural gas; the bases of economic growth have undergone drastic changes. These changes much like the ways in which historically we have understood human growth through the primacy of particular resources as propellants viz., the Stone Age, the Iron Age, the Bronze to the Nuclear, have sparked specific relationships with the environment. These relationships are in terms of the dependant population, their growing demands, spatial inequalities in terms of these demands between the industrially developed and developing world and pressures on environment raising significant concerns around issues of sustainability and finite and scarce resources. The present section tries to highlight this relationship through understanding changes that have occurred in the industrial world and geographical ramifications of the same in form of energy consumption, issues around climate change, carbon emissions and ozone depletion, and the spatial inequalities therein.

7.2 Industrial Revolution: The new and changing geographies of resource consumption

It was late 1700’s when some significant changes were taking place in the Great Britain, new technological innovations and coal as energy resource changed the scale and diversity in production of commodities ushering in industrial revolution. The full potential and impact of Industrial revolution was only seen in the span of 100 years when it spread in the modern day developed world during 1800’s and after 200 years around 1960’s when industrialization became a significant part of human psyche and driving force behind understanding development and global changes that followed. This replacement of wood, wind and water to coal and later petroleum and natural gas led to emergence of factory style mass-consumption in Britain soon having a ripple effect in United States of America and Western Europe. Manual labour that played vital role earlier in production of commodities was replaced by mechanization of the industry. There were social changes in terms of lifestyle, increase in agricultural productivity through betterment of technology, implements and fertilizers and large-scale employment possibilities in urban centres. 18th and 19th century and later 20th century came to be known as the age of industrial growth, diversification and the era in human history where population grew rampantly with improvement in medical facilities, living conditions and food security especially in certain parts of the world. Industrial revolution had social, political and economic influences across the world and simultaneously with growing dependence on exhaustible fossil fuels raised concerns around glaring levels of environmental pollution and threats for future growth also widening inequalities between developed and developing world.

But why did industrialization flourish in Great Britain and what role did geography play in it? One significant reason was the abundance of coal and iron ore reserves in the country and a long coastline that both gave immunity from external attack, also made possible cheap transport through sea. It was also the period of Britain as a world colonial power ensuring the growing industrial apparatus a regular supply of raw material as well as market for finished products. Economies of these industrial nations grew at a much faster rate. Cities and towns flourished around these centres of coal mining. Factories sprawled diversifying commodities including emergence of textile industry. Roads, railways and canals as effective modern modes of fast transport became in circulation. This technology later spread to USA and Western Europe proliferating consumption of non-essential commodities and assembly line factory networks. Industrialization created rifts between the capitalists and the working class and regions that became suppliers of raw materials and resources and later consumers of many of these products, while production and economic returns entailed a different geography. If one was poor before the advent of industrial revolution the situation became worse while if one had economic resources to invest as capital the experiences were pleasant. At the same time, the differences in energy consumption grew magnanimously between the developed and less developed worlds, the effects of which are faced until date both economically and environmentally.

7.3 Industrial Revolution and Its impact on Global Human Population and rising pressures on Natural Resources

Population grew at a tremendous rate post the Industrial revolution reaching past 7.4 billion population today according to United Nations estimates. Although homo sapiens have occupied the earth for over 2.2 million years with (modern) human population dispersing around the world in about 45000 – 55000 years ago from its origins in Africa, the population around 1st century AD. lied between 150-200 million people with most part of history growing very sluggishly controlled by natural checks and diseases reaching only 700 million at the dawn of industrial revolution in 1700’s and touching 1 billion in 1800s. One of the biggest slump in the population was experienced in 1300’s when population dropped down by 75 million people with occurrence of the plague termed black death.

Thus, it is the last 200 years when the human population has dramatically risen to the present stage with population growing over three times in a span of 100 years between years 1900 and 2000 growing from 1.5 billion to 6.1 billion of humans inhabiting and depending on the earth. The world population growth can be divided into three phases the pre- modernity phase running for longest part of human history with sluggish growth rate. The Modernity phase of the industrial revolution period with rising population due to better standards of living and improved health conditions reaching up to 2.1 percent growth rate up till 1962. Finally, the Third phase of falling population growth rates however with wide gaps between the developed and developing world in terms of population change with much population growth happening in the developing world.

The following graph shows the changes in population over the period of human history exposing the sudden surge over last 200 years and the future increase in population. But why is this discussion on population change significant? It is important because it reflects upon the ways in which human demands over available resources have changed with changing technological knowledge, adding pressures on the environment. It is in terms of ways in which shifts from the renewable to non-renewable sources of energy has increased production capacity and thus producing surplus and rise in population. Also how the exhaustibility of these resources and the pollutants released have raised concerns around depletion of resources, climate change and global warming, health hazards and also suggested grim future for human race unless there is unforeseen technological advancement.

Figure: Growth in Human Population over Time

Source: Marten (2001), Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development (pg. 31) as adapted from Population Reference Bureau, 1984- World Population- Fundamentals of Growth, Washington D.C.

Thomas Malthus in his treatise on “An Essay on the Principles of Population” published in 1798 years before the population touched 1 billion mark and when industrial revolution was setting its foot in England, pointed out towards this relationship between the exponential growths of population in comparison the arithmetic rate of growth in agricultural productivity. He suggested there are imbalances between the rate at which population is likely to grow and the capacity of the earth’s finite resources to support the rising demands of the population suggesting towards a grim future. He argued there have historically been positive checks to control the rising population and keeping them within the resource limits through famine, epidemics, diseases, wars etc. that increased death rates and preventive measures through birth controls, abortion and keeping moral restraints like celibacy and extending age of marriages.

Gerald Marten in his book “Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development” elaborates the relationship between industrial revolution and growing population through following diagram suggesting improvement in carrying capacity due to technological advancements. He argues that Industrial revolution let to expansion of agricultural production. Highly productive crops like wheat, rice and potatoes, which had a definite geography, were spread through colonial expansion and trade. Mechanization of farming increased the production capacity replacing lower yields depending on manual labour and animal power as energy source. Man had more control on the biological ecosystem increasing the carrying capacity of the soil and thus giving way to population growth.

Figure: Increase in carrying capacity and Human Population since Industrial Revolution

Source: Marten (2001), Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development (pg. 33)

The high birth rates and large family sizes of the pre-industrial period was supplemented by better health facilities and living standards due to advent of scientific medical practices. Reduced death rates accompanied with high birth rates led to increase in population in the industrialized world through 19th century and most parts of the 20th century. However, with growing rates of urbanization and better survival rates among children helped reduce the need for large family sizes, birth controls along with already reduced death rates through health practices made growth rates decline reaching to almost zero in many industrialized nations. Today with the spread of medical facilities to the developing world with still high but declining birth rates, most of the world population lives in these developing countries with growing pressures on environment.

While there is a relationship between industrial revolution and population growth as discussed above, what does it imply for the relationship between industrial growth and environment? The answer to this is the increase in carrying capacity as ushered by the industrial revolution given the current technologies and energy sources with finite life have their own limitations of growth and abilities to sustain future generations unless new sustainable technologies are developed. Exponential growth in population suggest exponential rise in dependency on natural resources such as energy, land for food consumption and settlement purposes and also produce waste as by-products of development with requirements to decompose. It also meant growing pressure on resources for raw materials to supplement heavy demands off these industries to sustain mass consumption. Also, given the vast geographical differences across the world in terms of energy consumptions, population growth rates, demands, poverty and inequalities, the impact of environmental damage due to consumption of fossil fuel driven modern technology is going to impact much hard and differently across regions. In the next section, we discuss changes in global energy consumptions and resultant issues in terms of carbon emissions, pollution levels as the cost of the contemporary economic growth regime.

7.4 Changes in Global Energy Consumption

One of the significant feature of the industrial revolution was the shift from the renewable sources of energy to non-renewable sources of biotic fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas. While these fossil fuels were taken as inexhaustible, soon their negative implications on environment and finiteness as a resource were felt having adverse impact on environment. However, when we felt this relationship, our lives had already been interwoven with the fossil fuel consumption as a chief source of energy. Coal and oil had become intricate part of our development process that any shift to new energy source would imply changes in ways in which we lived our lives and understood growth propelled through industries. Hubbert, an American scientist, had predicted as back as in 1949 the decline in oil reserves over the time, the peak of which was experienced around 1970’s since when it has been falling. Similarly, in 1960’s Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring had shaken the world with issues around growing chemical fertilizers and pesticides through these industries and their health and environmental hazards. We currently live under the fear of increasing carbon emissions in form of greenhouse gases and growing threat of global warming and climate change as a result of the rapid industrialization.

The following graph reveals the changes in the energy consumption over time with increasing reliance on fossil fuels for our energy needs post the setting in of the industrial revolution.

Figure: World Energy Consumption by Source

Source: Based on Vaclav Smil estimates from Energy Transitions: History, Requirements and Prospects together with BP Statistical Data for 1965 and subsequent (https://ourfiniteworld.com/2012/03/12/world-energy-consumption-since-1820-in-charts/)

This relationship between pre-industrial and post-industrial energy consumption is reflected in following trends.

Pre-Industrial Energy Use in Europe:

More dependence on renewable sources of energy a large proportion that came from animal traction (horses and oxen), however this can not necessarily be treated as sustainable compared to this modern consumption heavily relies on fossil fuels

The structure of economy and scale was limited and most of energy consumption was for agricultural purposes.

Wood burning as inefficient mode of energy conversion and carbon intense Large areas were needed for animal feeding and for fuel wood

Industrial Energy Use

Coal as a source of energy in 18th and 19th century and oil in 20th century mostly for transportation, natural gas, nuclear power and some renewable sources in later half of last century

Biomass remained constant since 1820s at 0.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent with modern energy sources growing by 700 times

Increasing use of fossil fuels leading to increase in CO2 emissions.

In terms of the global distribution of the fossil fuel consumption, some 17 percent of the world population that resides in developed world consumes as much as the other 83 percent of world population. This also explains the lifestyle based on mass consumption in developed countries that builds on this high per capita consumption of fossil fuels.

Figure: Global Share of Fossil Fuel Consumption

Source: Rubenstein (2013), Contemporary Human Geography 2nd edition

Although world has moved towards seeking alternative modes of energy which are much cleaner and less polluting, these new sources are expensive and would cause inconvenience in term of sudden shift to their usage. Still 81 percent of the world relies on fossil fuels for its energy needs as per World Bank figures of 2014. The above map shows per capita consumption of energy across the world.

Map: Per Capita Consumption of Energy in the World, 2014

7.5 Ecological Challenges of Rapid Industrialization and reliance on Fossil Fuels

The limited resource base of the earth and growing population post Industrialization has led to increase in demand on resources for satisfying human needs. Simultaneously the driving force of this industrialization, the consumption of fossil fuels have raised a host of ecological issues around pollution, poverty, carbon emissions, greenhouse emissions and global warming, hazardous waste disposals, drinking water contamination, health hazards etc. Some of the issues include:

Global Warming: With rising levels of carbon di oxide and other greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere that absorb solar radiation, there is a threat experienced in terms of increase in world temperatures. This phenomenon of global warming is said to cost melting of polar ice caps and rising of sea level temperatures causing heavy damage to coastal regions and the various resources including population with submergence of many island countries.

Climate Change: Climatic conditions across the world have been differently reacting to such changes in global temperature conditions adversely affecting the usage of other resources such as land and agricultural productivity threatening the food supply chain. This is due to rapid changes in world temperatures and diminishing levels of conducive environments for agricultural production. However climate change has a natural cycle, such has been disturbed and intensified by global emissions of pollutants and global warming.

Pollution and related health hazards: Industries add several toxic elements to the environment as waste products. These elements pollute the atmosphere where we breathe oxygen to survive, water both ground and from surface that we use for drinking and other everyday purposes, soil reducing its fertility and simultaneously damaging other life forms. The toxicity in the atmosphere also affects our health conditions producing skin issues, breathing ailments and emergence of new forms of diseases.

Deforestation and Land Degradation: Social and Economic Poverty:

Acid rains: Precipitation containing acids as generated through human induced pollutants in the atmosphere damaging buildings, infrastructure and health conditions. This leads to destruction in soil microbes, corrosion, destruction of vegetation to excessive mineral leaching, changes in food chains and damage to several aquatic and terrestrial species.

7.6 Summary:

Industrial revolution was a product of massive shift in energy consumption from renewable sources of wood, water and wind to consumption of fossil fuels like coal, petrol and Natural gas. This shift led to increase in carrying capacity of earth’s resources vis-à-vis new emergent technological knowledge increasing human population worldwide especially in the industrialized countries with effective reduction in death rates. Production of commodities that relied on manual labour or animal power increased due to mechanization of production process, increasing production capacity. This growing population further meant increase in demand from natural resources for satisfying human needs. Urbanization propelled around new industries drew a low of out migration from rural areas. These changes had significant impacts on the environment in form of excessive pressure on resources, growing levels of pollution, contamination of resources, enhanced rates of carbon emissions and greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change, widening gaps between rich and poor, developed and developing regions. This increased consumption on fossil fuels also meant reliance on exhaustible resources that caused over consumption and accelerated rates of depletion causing alarming signals for future use and calling out need for sustainable and clean resource development and consumption.

References

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• Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., & Behrens, W. W., III. (1972). The limits of growth: a report for the Club of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind. New York/N.Y.: Universe Books.
• Robin, L. (2013). The future of nature: documents of global change. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• The global 2000 report to the President of the U.S. Entering the 21st century. A report prepared by the Council on Environmental Quality and the Department of State: Study directo