Industrial Development and Environmental Degradation

Industrial due to advancement in science and technology started in 1860 England and soon spread over Western Europe and North America. No doubt rapid rate of industrial development has given economic prosperity to human society, has given new dimension to socio-economic structure and has provided material comfort to the people of industrially developed countries but it has also created many-fold environment problems. In fact, the glittering effects of industrialization have so greatly affected the mind of the general public that industrialization is now being considered as the parameter of modernity and as a necessary element of socio-economic development of nation.

In the beginning several countries of western world blindly followed the race of industrialization and did not care its adverse impacts on their own natural environment. Rapid rate of industrialization, thus, resulted into rapid rate of exploitation of natural resources and increased industrial output. Both the components of industrial development e.g. exploitation of natural resources and industrial production have created several lethal environmental degradation and ecological imbalance at global, regional and local levels in variety of ways. Exploitation of natural resources in order to meet the industrial demand of raw materials has resulted into the reduction of forest covers due to reckless felling of trees, excavation of land of mining purposes, reduction in arable land due to industrial expansion, lowering of groundwater level due to excessive withdrawal of groundwater, collapsing of ground surface due to withdrawal of mineral oil and groundwater etc. development in agricultural sector in order to supply raw materials to factories such as sugarcanes, cotton etc. has been responsible for over-utilization of soils which has resulted into soil pollution due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and insecticides.

Besides desired production, there are numerous undesired outputs from the factories such as industrial wastes, polluted water, toxic gases, chemical precipitates, aerosols, ashes and smokes etc. which pollute air, water, land, soils etc. and thus degrade the environment. The industrialized countries have increased the concentration of pollutants emitted from the factories in the air, water, and land to such and extent that they have degraded the environment to the critical limit and have brought the human society on the brink of its destruction.

The industrial development, directed to accelerate the pace of economic growth, though may be economically significant but the after-effects are certainly socially undesirable. The impacts of industrialization of the environment are not immediately noticeable because of time-lag as the effects of rare of changes of moderate nature in a few components o the environment and the cumulative effects of theses changes after crossing the sensitivity of the environment natural ecosystem become hazardous to human society. The adverse effects of industrialization may change the overall character of natural system and the chain effects some times become suicidal for human society. Majority of the impacts of industrialization are related to pollution and environmental degradation.

The release of toxic elements into the environment natural ecosystem through the application of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides changes the food chains and food webs and physical and chemical properties of soils. Similarly, the release of industrial wastes into stagnant waters of ponds, tanks and lakes, into rivers and seas contaminates water and causes several diseases and deaths of aquatic ecosystems.