In the last part, I introduced the principles of sustainability and discussed some of the global, ecological issues we're facing as a species. In this part, I'll examine how we industry got us here.
I was recently in Minneapolis this past weekend looking at a prospective graduate school, and being from central Texas, I was complaining about the climate before even visiting, afraid that the frozen north would actually kill me. I landed at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport on Thursday and it was relatively chilly (for me) at 35° F. When I (and an assortment of students not from Minnesota) asked about if this weather was normal, the director of graduate studies jokingly said "Oh, yeah, it's normally around 40° and by the end of the week goes up to 75° and we all go out and barbecue! No, this winter's been crazy and the snow normally drops the temperature by twenty degrees; sends all the sun back up."
Yesterday, before I got on my return flight, it was 62° F and U Minn students were literally playing beach volleyball and sunbathing on the Scholar's Walk. Normally, the Twin Cities in late February is supposed to be in the low 30s, and yesterday set a historic record for heat index. So there I was, walking around in my winter coat and dress pants, from Texas, complaining about how hot it was in Minnesota!
Although global temperatures have naturally gone up and down through history, since the 1850s, we've recorded a steadily increasing global average temperature. Though some places are cooling as others are warming in both surface and troposphere temperature (IPCC Fig. TS.6), leading some to use the term 'climate change' rather than global warming, the whole world is getting hotter. Giradet, in his concise summary of the relationship between city and environment (which is fairly cheap and which I would recommend for anyone concerned with the overview), explains that it all begins with coal (65).
Specifically, with Britain's introduction of coking coal in the early 18th ct. which led iron and steel being much more widely available, the Industrial Revolution started in London, Liverpool, and Bradford (Giradet 64-72). In Bradford alone, the pollution due to the coal stacks was so intense, and the city, which exploded in tenement housing due to poor urban planning, was so filthy, that George Weerth wrote in 1846 that "In Bradford, however, you think you have been lodged with the devil incarnate. If anyone wants to feel how a poor sinner is tormented in Purgatory, let him travel to Bradford" (qtd. in Giradet 69).
This explosion in urban population, due to the migration of poor farmers and other rural workers to cities like Bradford and London, led to pollution, exploitation of the lower class, poor urban planning, and the depreciation of natural resources, breaking all the principles of sustainability (mentioned earlier this week). In fact, the water quality in Bradford was so poor due to industrial waste dumping, that cholera and typhoid outbreaks were common; the urban density of 104,000 in 1851 (from only 13,000 in 1801) made these epidemics more severe and damaging (Giradet 69-70).
Industry, developing in the 18th and 19th cts., lead to a reduction in the quality of life, an increase in the commonness of disease, and the beginning of global warming (Shah). Industrial smoke let off greenhouse gasses (commonly in the form of excess carbon released into the atmosphere), industrial waste polluted rivers and drinking water, and industrial planners designed towns to pack in workers and maximize profits, at the expense of public health. All of this led to environmental feedback loops, the melting of sea ice, and the vicious cycles that make Minneapolis 62° F in February. And if that heat stroke isn't enough of a wake-up call, I'm not sure what would be.
Later, I will compile a condensed version of the science of global warming on this site.
In the next post, I'll look at the history of sustainability and health, focusing on what industrializing cities did right and how we can learn from their efforts, today.
Works Cited
Giradet, Herbert. Cities, People, Planet: Urban Development and Climate Change. 2nd ed. West Sussex, England: Wiley, 2008. Print.
IPCC. "TS.3.1.1 Global Average Temperatures." IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.
Shah, Anup. Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction. Global Issues. Anup Shah, 1 Feb. 2015. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.