Good Guardians of Earth
We have not been good guardians of the Earth. How far do you agree with this statement?
The era of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in Earth’s ecology and humans’ relationship with their environment. The Industrial Revolution dramatically changed every aspect of human life and lifestyles. It wasn’t that the Industrial Revolution became a stalwart juggernaut overnight. It started in the mid-1700s in Great Britain when machinery began to replace manual labour. Fossil fuels started substituting wind, water and wood, used primarily for the manufacture of textiles and the development of iron making processes at that time. These processes gave rise to sweeping increases in production capacity and would affect all basic human needs, including food production, medicine, housing, and clothing. Not only did society develop the ability to have more things faster, it would be able to develop better things. Now the use of fossil fuels – so heavily relied upon to fuel the Industrial Revolution — had become so firmly interwoven into human progress and economy, that changing this energy system would drastically alter the very way we have lived our lives.
In the blind pursuit of progress and development by countless nations we have forgotten that the resources we have taken for granted is slowly depleting and that the ecological impact of our actions is diverse. Coupled with the advent of globalization, the rise of consumerism and the population boom, we as humans now have exponential need for resources, energy, food, housing and land, as well as the exponential increase in waste and earth has paid the price so far. In a typical day, you might drive to work, do a load of laundry, or watch TV in an air-conditioned room. Every one of those actions comes with a price that extends beyond the one measured in dollars and cents withdrawn from a bank—this price comes in the form of natural resources withdrawn from the Earth.
For example many of the
The era of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in Earth’s ecology and humans’ relationship with their environment. The Industrial Revolution dramatically changed every aspect of human life and lifestyles. It wasn’t that the Industrial Revolution became a stalwart juggernaut overnight. It started in the mid-1700s in Great Britain when machinery began to replace manual labour. Fossil fuels started substituting wind, water and wood, used primarily for the manufacture of textiles and the development of iron making processes at that time. These processes gave rise to sweeping increases in production capacity and would affect all basic human needs, including food production, medicine, housing, and clothing. Not only did society develop the ability to have more things faster, it would be able to develop better things. Now the use of fossil fuels – so heavily relied upon to fuel the Industrial Revolution — had become so firmly interwoven into human progress and economy, that changing this energy system would drastically alter the very way we have lived our lives.
In the blind pursuit of progress and development by countless nations we have forgotten that the resources we have taken for granted is slowly depleting and that the ecological impact of our actions is diverse. Coupled with the advent of globalization, the rise of consumerism and the population boom, we as humans now have exponential need for resources, energy, food, housing and land, as well as the exponential increase in waste and earth has paid the price so far. In a typical day, you might drive to work, do a load of laundry, or watch TV in an air-conditioned room. Every one of those actions comes with a price that extends beyond the one measured in dollars and cents withdrawn from a bank—this price comes in the form of natural resources withdrawn from the Earth.
For example many of the