How Did The Industrial Revolution Contribute To The Destruction Of The Environment

The last major social effect cause by the Industrial Revolution was the destruction of the environment. The factories need a lot of land to house the big machines so the forests had to be demolished. Also wood was needed to help keep the machines running so more forests were demolished. The poem “The Excursion” by William Wordsworth states “where not a habitation stood before, Abodes of men irregularly masses Like tress in forests.” These lines describe how people took the place of trees in the forest after the forest was demolished by industry. In “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau describes how railroads demolish a peaceful and serine place of nature. Also the air was being polluted by all the smoke being produced by the factories. Water was

The Leeds Woollen Workers Petition states “each machine will do as much work in twelve hours, as ten men can in that time do by hand, and they work night-and day, one machine will do as much work in one day as would otherwise employ twenty men.” So the production of good became ten times faster making hand created items obsolete because they could not compete with the machines. The industry also caused more money to come into circulation because industries were making more money because of the large amount of goods produced. Some of the families were gaining larger incomes because of their ties to the industry. Radcliff states “they might be truly said to be placed in a higher state of wealth, peace, and godliness, by the great demand for, and high price of, their labour, than they have ever before experienced.” This allowed people to spend more money on things boosting the economy through

The first of many was the idea of laissez faire. This is where the government leaves the business owners do whatever they want. This would have caused a lot of problems because product prices would sky rocket and many people would not be able to afford things that they needed to survive. This policy could also help the people gain things back that the government has taken away. In the document called In Defense of Laissez-Faire it says “thus, in our attempts to improve, by legislation, the conditions of the poor, we have not only multiplied the number, but reduced them to a state of degradation before unknown.” The government has caused this to happen because of “our poor laws and our charities, we have pauperized, and almost ruined the country” (In Defense of Laissez-Faire). If this policy was put in place then the government would have been restricted allowing business to have the freedom to control the