The human impact on the planet has driven
us into our current crisis. There wasn’t any significant damage to the planet
before the Industrial Revolution. Between 1760 and 1830 the Industrial
Revolution took place, starting in England. The transition into the Industrial
Revolution was initiated by the conversion of the hand/manual labor to the use
of machines, chemical production, and production of iron. The first industry to
use modern technology was the textile industry.
As a result of the newly found need
of factories, air pollution increased. The burning of fossil fuels in these
factories was a new concept and main source of energy, therefore causing
increasing levels of smoke pollution. From there, the pollution of the air
trickled from the factories to the products coming out of the factories. For
example, Ford’s Model A and Model T cars were outcomes of the Industrial
Revolution and factories. In order to power these automobiles, air pollution
was the consequence.
The textile industry’s revolution started
with the flying shuttle; this invention facilitated the process of weaving. By the
19th century the textile inventions were done, but improvements and
advancements to these products were being made. Thanks to the Industrial
Revolution, mass production in the textile industry became prevalent. The mass
production of textiles created more jobs, however the long-term consequences of
this has led to the fast-fashion industry today and all of the air and water
pollution with it. The Industrial Revolution also increased life expectancy.
From 1700 to 1740, the population had risen dramatically and since then the
population has been increasing exponentially. The more people, the more clothes
needed to be made to clothes everyone and the longer they live, the more
clothes purchased over time.
Today, the textile industry is the
second most polluting industry. Unlike other industries, the fashion industry
is accountable for not only water and air pollution but also the absurd amount
of waste it generates. From the planting of cotton seeds all the way to the consumer
throwing garments away, the fashion industry (especially with fast-fashion) is
killing our planet. Population keeps rising and due to the direct correlation
between population pollution, so does the planet’s pollution.
Hi ladies!
ReplyDeleteI liked your post a lot. The information given was spot on, and super informative. However, I would like to suggest something. Since this is a fashion course and not a history course, maybe you could elaborate more on the fashion aspect of the prompt, rather than the history. The history is most certainly needed, and was well touched upon, so kudos to you both there! In our post we talked a lot about the processes needed for making fast fashion specifically. We would've made a great team for this blog post. You could've done the history, and we could've done the fashion. Teamwork makes the dream work!
See you soon,
Frankie :)
Really interesting to know long back this problem started and to think what little has been done to change it. Three centuries later and the effects of pollution are very evident but very little has been done to change it. I enjoyed the visuals on your blog post and how you talked about the evolution and progression of different factories and the fashion industry. Each innovation led to faster success for each industry but then even more pollution. Hopefully there will be more ecological innovations. Great post :)
ReplyDelete-Aoife