Global Industry and the Environment

The industrial revolution had a marked impact on the environment from the outset. In industrializing societies themselves, factory centers were often blanketed with smoke. Many people came to view smoke as normal, even a sign of health—economic health most obviously, but even personal health. By the twentieth century, when medical research began to suggest the harmful effects of air pollution, business leaders sometimes managed to suppress scientific results or at least to sponsor alternative findings. In other words, the industrial revolution created new environmental issues and also many reasons to downplay them in favor of continued industrial development.