The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution - the invention and wide use of machines to do work once done by hand - swept the Western world throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries. Events conspired to ensure that Britain was the epicenter of the revolution. Britain was out of wood to burn, but possessed rich deposits of coal to burn as fuel for steam engines. In turn, steam engines would power mines, farms, factories, trains and ships. By importing raw materials from its American colonies and turning them into high-quality goods for export, Britain maintained its status as the world's dominant superpower.

As the revolution swept the rest of Europe and, later, the United States, the focus of Western society began to shift from farm to city. More intensive and efficient agriculture meant more food with less labor, and allowed steep population growth in Europe's cities, and even steeper growth in the sparsely populated United States. Faster transportation meant more mobility for people and goods, and advances in electricity and telegraphy, increased communication between far-flung locales. The Industrial Revolution was the moment our modern lives became inevitable. But not just the good things about our modern lives. Today, human activities emit 7.4 gigatons of carbon dioxide each year. Today's atmosphere contains about 25 percent more greenhouse gas than it did before the Industrial Revolution. Today, no scientist or politician doubts the increase in atmospheric CO2 is having an impact on the planet, its weather, and, by extension, humanity. Now the debate is what to do about it.

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