Other criticisms regarding …show more content…
The Industrial Revolution also had an impact on human health and accelerated global warming (Rubenstein, 2012). Although the Earth goes through natural hot and cold phases, environmentalists and climate scientists have proven that within the past 50 years, the Earth’s overall temperature has increased at an accelerated rate that does not coincide with historical hot phases, and based on scientific evidence, determined that human activity is directly responsible for this heating phase (Rubenstein, 2012). Global warming is caused by a combination of pollutants trapped in the atmosphere, leading to a warming affect, commonly referred to as the “greenhouse effect” (Rubenstein, 2012). This warming affect has caused increases in air, land and water temperatures, rising sea levels, and glacier melting; directly contributing to climate change (Lever-Tracy, 2008) (Rubenstein, 2012). Global warming and climate change not only have detrimental effects on the weather, they also have a sociological impact on healthcare and income disparities, disaster preparedness, and hazard mitigation (Lever-Tracy, 2008). The past several decades have demonstrated that climate change has increased the intensity and frequency of natural disasters in Haiti (Rubenstein, 2012). Disaster event recordings dating back to the 1500s indicate that Haiti has experienced numerous disasters, but interestingly, the proportion of disasters began to increase after the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s (Rubenstein, 2012). According to historic disaster records on Haiti, the country experienced a devastating earthquake in 1564, and two major earthquake events in the 1600’s and 1700’s (DesRoches, Comerio, Eberhard, Mooney, & Rix, 2011). In the 1800’s, Haiti began to experience more frequent disasters (cyclone and two