The birth of the Industrial Revolution during the eighteenth century also marked the emergence of the philosophical and social movement of Enlightenment. The concern of this time was for modern society to make progressive ideas based on reason and science and freedom of the individual. The arise of Industry has resulted in natural environments to being destroyed and natural resources becoming depleted through the degrading of the environment. Industrialism has bought about human activity that results with negative effects on the biophysical environment and sustainability of the earth’s resources.
1. Manchester, England ("Cottonopolis"), pictured in 1840, showing the mass of factory chimneys
“It is true that nature was seen as mainly designed for human purposes. On the other hand, as set down in the bible, God had given the earth to humanity to manage. Its fruits were to be appropriated by Man, but in the context of a cooperative relation between humanity and nature. The earth was seen as analogous to a huge farm. It was self balancing, but it could be managed even better by Man, cultivated in a rational way using the new sciences to fulfil God’s duty.” [Dickens, 2004]
Throughout most of history, humans have been hunter-gatherers who hunted with in forests, making use of the wood from the trees for shelter, tools and warmth and gathered food in the forms of vegetation and animals that inhabit it. This was all done in moderation until the advent of the Industrial Revolution where deforestation dramatically accelerated. It was seen as acceptable at this time as society was progressing through means of technology and it was believed that a new kind of ‘enlightened’ man was being made. Wealth was being made out of nature; therefore it became a highly valued asset.
“The philosophy of the Enlightenment emphasized the control and containment of nature in God’s and Man’s best interest. One result was an increasing premium on ‘wilderness’. As nature became tamed, mountains, precipices, craggy knolls, unploughed land and fast-flowing rivers became prized precisely because they had not been tamed. They were unharnessed and intimidating” [Dickens, 2004]
There was high value in trees, as they could be transformed into many different types of products, including wood charcoal for fuel, timber for building, various paper products and chemicals just to name a few. Land with forests then became subdivided and privatized so natural resources could be farmed. Developing countries with large forested areas were encouraged to trade their timber and hand over ownership of the land to First World countries and logging corporations. This so called ‘scientific’ solution to ‘improve’ developing countries proved to be disastrous for these communities as it disrupted their own well-established ways of farming. Enlightenment offered no room for social or ecological variety. It undermined existing traditions and cultures and the problem also applied to the newly ‘Enlightened’ man.
2. The Native American way of life changed after trading with the Europeans. At first Native Americans wanted metal products which they couldn't make themselves, such as axe-heads and knives. Later they realized the value of guns. Having guns and horses completely changed the way Native Americans hunted for food.
“Robert Cushman, in a seventeenth-century book called Lawfulness of Removing out of England in the Parts of America, argued that the Indians were basically non-industrious, ‘neither having art, science, skill or faculty to use either the land or the commodities of it; but all spoils, rots and is marred for want of maturing, gathering, ordering. Etc. … [Indians] do but run over the grass, as do also the foxes and wild beasts’ (cited in Drayton 2000: 56). This diagnosis meant that the English had not only the right but also the duty to take over and improve the Indians’ land. But note that such improvement was seen as also bringing improvement to the Indians themselves. They would be transformed from being vagrants to being fully fed, modern, eventually rational people; part of cultured human society rather than ‘nature’” [Dickens, 2004]
Therefore land was deforested and then used for grazing livestock, new plantations of commodities and settlements. The movement of indigenous people wasn’t the only threat poised on nature. Without sufficient reforestation, habitats become destroyed, biodiversity is lost and aridity occurs. Further disadvantages of this is the impact it has on biological processes to capture and store greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and the deforested land is subject to soil erosion which frequently leads to wasteland. The reality of this is humans and other species develop and behave under the laws and mechanisms of physical nature. Environmental change, such as global warming which has resulted from deforestation, indicates that human society is having an impact on the precise ways in which these mechanisms are operating. The result of this is humans and other species are affected in new sometimes-disastrous ways.
3. Jungle burned for agriculture in southern Mexico.
The fact that the internal nature of human society had an impact on external nature triggered a new movement that turned away from the characteristics of Enlightenment. Romanticism rejected the view of nature as a mere physical ‘ resource’ to be used dispassionately for human benefit. The Romantics saw both human and non-human nature, as also a source of wonder, humility and awe. Humans need an aesthetic and spiritual relationship with themselves and with their environment. Nature should not be appreciated for its value as a material resource or commodity but instead for its own qualities. Romanticism allowed humans to respect and recognize the qualities non-human entities possessed and reject industrialism, cash and progress.
Near the end of the nineteenth century in the increasingly urbanized Europe and America, a majorly transformed view towards nature was taken. ‘Wild nature’ was seen as threat to human settlement, and this particular notion was predominant since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Untamed nature was the enemy and it needed to be destroyed. Protecting it for its scenic and recreational value was of little desire. Land was seen as an obstacle that needed to be battled so one could survive. The clearing of trees, Indigenous people and wild animals gave pride to humans. ‘Wild nature’ was transformed into civilization and not preserved for public enjoyment.
“The traditional image of nature and its inhabitants as frightening is reflected in much of our past and present ‘mythical’ literature. For example, wolves play a central role in fairytales such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘Peter and the Wolf’ and more recently, in the Disney film version of Beauty and the Beast, making the woods a dangerous place for children to wander alone. Similarly, readers are advised to keep out of the forest at night to avoid spectres such as the Headless Horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Civilisation is depicted here as conversion of untamed natural landscapes into a more refined pastoral setting. Note for example, Tolkien’s contrast in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ between the gentle, civilised, rolling vistas of the hobbit settlements and the wilder, darker world of the forest and mountains inhabited by walking trees, orcs and other threatening creatures.” [Hannigan, 1995]
However, by the end of the nineteenth century, a new view was being taken on wild ‘nature’. The threat it before held was no longer seen to be there. Natural landscapes were disappearing and turning into urban environments. These new settlements that had taken over from the natural environment seemed to produce an excessive amount of noise, pollution, over crowding and social problems. Therefore, the wilderness was now seen as something precious, and it took on a special meaning to humans. The stress that came from living a city life created nostalgia for outdoor life and country living. A ‘back to nature’ movement was created which emerged shortly after the First World War were initiatives such as reforestation and the protection and maintenance of wild areas. By the mid-nineteenth century, when deforestation sharply accelerated until shortly after the Second World War, it was calculated that approximately half of the earth’s mature tropical trees had been cleared.
The planting of new trees has created new forests but it is difficult to justify this reason to cut down old and mature forests. The old forests have established varieties of ecosystems and inhabit species of animals that are dependant on these forests. The clearing of these animals’ habitats has lead to extinction of certain species, which as mentioned before have an impact on how the mechanisms are affected. For example, in Central Africa, the loss of species like gorillas, chimps, and elephants reduces the ability of seed dispersal and slows the recovery of damaged forest. Seventy percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes.
Deforestation also leads to aridity that can permanently damage the land, leaving it to become useless to humans and animals and making it prone and the cause to natural disasters such as flooding and global warming. Trees extract groundwater through their roots and release it into the atmosphere. When part of a forest is removed, the trees no longer evaporate away this water, resulting in a much drier climate. Deforestation reduces the content of water in the soil and groundwater as well as atmospheric moisture. This climate change affects species of animals and the farming of crops throughout a season. The forest may have little impact on flooding in the case of large rainfall events, which results in being too much for the storage capacity of forest soil if the soils are at or close to saturation.
The idea of ecology and ecosystems had a large influence on how we regard nature and the environment. Ernst Haeckel (1866); the leading German disciple of Darwin, said, “Ecology is the science of relations between organisms and their environments.” The realization of this notion together with the demise of natural habitats and their valuable qualities gave more reason to ‘move back to nature’.
Modern day society has taken a major stance on environmental destruction and aimed to restore the natural environment, but the problem seems to have leaked out into many other areas that have been constructed by society. Industrialism has affected society through the needs of consumption and in return it has largely affected environmental sociology.
“Shove and Warde aim to explore possible contributions of the sociology of consumption to environmental sociology by outlining six mechanisms that might be contributing to escalating levels of consumption. The first is the process of social comparison, whereby people’s consumption styles are an expression of class taste, that is, an attempt by (middle-class) groups of people to distinguish themselves from one another, (following Bourdieu). Second is the creation of self-identity, whereby people in modern societies are constantly projecting messages to one another via their acquisition of goods and lifestyle practices (following Beck 1992; Giddens 1991; 1998; Bauman 1993). Third is mental stimulation, whereby people consume things and learn new tastes as ways of overcoming boredom (what the authors refer to as the “eulogization of variety”). Fourth is the “Diderot effect,” whereby the acquisition of a new item renders the owner’s old items unacceptable. The result is a “rolling effect,” with replacement of old articles quickly spreading to the owner’s other possessions. The fifth is specialization, whereby the separation of leisure activities into a variety of specialized fields leads to increasing consumption (e.g. running, training, squash and tennis – each requiring a special type of shoe). The final mechanism involves sociotechnical systems, whereby the acquisition of new, supposedly “time-saving” devices leads to new forms of consumption or heightened expectations (e.g. washing machines leading to new expectations as to how often items are washed).” [Buttel, 2002]
This activity of social consumption is more widely used in First World Countries, and with their ‘Eco friendly’ initiatives, corporations look else were to find resources for these needs of society. This existing sociology of consumption offers very little in terms of interest to environmental sociology or to the creation of more environmentally sustainable practices. The Third World Countries are therefore seen as sites to draw from natural resources and by looking at the World-System Theory, we can understand why some countries in the world economy have been able to grow in power and wealth while others remain trapped in apparent stagnation. Its is seen to have a global-scale division of labor, that functions in a cycle of capitalist production and the unequal exchange between peripheral and core economies. Global economic forces depend on poor counties and in doing so devastate their forests, soils and rivers.
The nature of humans under the mechanisms of the natural environment has lead to reactions that are cyclical. Humans saw nature as a threat, so industrialism came about. Its rapidly vast expansion opened the world up to new discoveries, allowing the condition of human life to improve while the condition of the earth gradually falters. A balance between human nature and environmental nature has become so far away, the extent to reverse the effect is too major. A balance must be met somewhere, where sustainability of the earth’s resources and the sociology of the individual in terms of consumerism and consumption must not coincide. The earth is a living entity and humans have caused massive destruction to it, some being irreversible. The lesser a demand for consumption will result in lesser the use of resources and the future will not look so bleak as it prophesized to be.
Bibliography
- · Dickens, P. 2004. Society and Nature: changing our environment, changing ourselves. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- · Hannigan, J 1995. Environmental discourse. In: Environmental Sociology. New York: Routledge.
- · Buttel, F. H., et al., 2002. Theory and the Environment – Classical Foundations, Contemporary insights. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers: Maryland and Oxford.
o Bauman, Z. 1993. Postmodern Ethics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
o Beck, U. 1992. Risk Society. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage
o Giddens, A. 1991. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity.
1998. The Third Way. Cambridge: Polity.
Secondary Resources
- · http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation
- · http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0904.htm
- · http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/globalwarming/deforestation-overview.html
- · http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm
- · Zeitgeist Addendum. Part III, 2007. Peter Joseph
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cottonopolis1.jpg
- http://www.mce.k12tn.net/indians/blueprint/trade.jpg
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lacanja_burn.JPG
- http://cinephile.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/07-07-sleepy-hollow.jpg
- http://th02.deviantart.net/fs7/300W/i/2005/228/9/7/Little_Red_Riding_Hood_by_Nyrak.jpg
- From William B. Greeley's, The Relation of Geography to Timber Supply, Economic Geography, 1925, vol. 1, p. 1-11. Source of "Today" map: compiled by George Draffan from roadless area map in The Big Outside: A Descriptive Inventory of the Big Wilderness Areas of the United States, by Dave Foreman and Howie Wolke (Harmony Books, 1992). These maps represent only virgin forest lost. Some regrowth has occurred but not to the age, size or extent of 1620 due to population increases and food cultivation.
- http://whyfiles.org/238earthday/images/amazon_deforest.jpg
- http://www.newint.org/features/2006/11/01/keynote.jpg
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