Industrialization, Economics, and the Environment Essay

Industrialization, Economics, and the Environment Human technological advancements make it possible to sustain larger and larger population by exploiting more and more natural resources. The three revolutions in human history, agricultural, industrial and green have all been answers to overpopulation. Naturally, industrialization leads to environmental degradation. The concern with Industrialization is that it is not a long term solution to human sustainability, since it operates under the premise of the tech fix, or the idea that humans will be able to invent new technologies to ensure their own survival. These solutions, while economically advantageous, do not consider the long term impacts of this continual and escalating†¦show more content†¦Over the period of the last two centuries, the curve of human population growth has departed from the normal S-shape because of mans ability to alter his environment. With fixed environmental limits the population curve will follow an S shape like curve B in our figure. (Dolan 58) If humans have not taken it upon themselves to manipulate nature, the population would not have risen to where it is now. However, if one subscribes to the Gaia Hypothesis, which views earth a self regulating organism with a certain threshold for abuse, there is the possibility that we could exhaust the technological possibilities for further raising the population ceiling (Dolan 59). The result would be what we have been trying to prevent all along, and mass starvation would ensue, thus fulfilling the Malthusian Scenario. However, at the present time, the only solution to overpopulation, industrialization is only a tech fix. Overpopulation itself is the result of a lack of long term vision, so it is not surprising that the technologies adopted to alleviate the consequences will follow the pattern of short term solution, of repairing damage that has been done instead of enforcing preventative measures. The short term economic growth of the economy, due to food, industrial output, and population grow exponentially until the diminishing resource base forces aShow MoreRelatedThe Stages of Industrialization1041 Words   |  4 PagesIndustrialization refers to a stage of social and economic transformation that alters a group or society from an agrarian one into an industrial society (Sullivan Sheffrin, 2003). Industrialization is associated with progress in the production of metallurgy and energy opening up the economy for manufacturing. It occurs as a broad process of modernizing in a society such that economic change and social change become strongly related to the technological innovations. 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