Effects of Industrialisation on the Environment This process of urbanization stimulated the booming new industries by concentrating workers and

factories together. And the new industrial cities became, as we read earlier, sources of wealth for the nation. Despite the growth in wealth and industry urbanization also had some negative effects. On the whole, working-class neighborhoods were bleak, crowded, dirty, and polluted. Alexis de Tocqueville, a French traveller and writer, visited Manchester in 1835 and commented on the environmental hazards. From this foul Drain the greatest stream of human industry flows out to fertilize the whole world. From this filthy sewer pure gold flows. Here humanity attains its most complete development and its most brutish, here civilization works its miracles and civilized man is turned almost into a savage. (Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution 44)

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The Industrial Revolution brought enormous advances in productivity, but with steep environmental costs. During the Industrial Revolution, environmental pollution in the United States increased with the emergence of new sources of fuel, great factories, and urban centers. The Industrial Revolution was powered by fossil fuels. In 1790, anthracite coal was first discovered in what is now known as the Coal Region of Pennsylvania. A harder and high quality form of coal, Anthracite soon became the primary source of fuel in the United States for domestic and industrial use. It fueled factory furnaces and steam-powered boats and machinery. But the consumption of immense quantities of coal and other fossil fuels eventually gave rise to unprecedented air pollution). In 1881, Chicago and Cincinnati were the first two American cities to enact laws to promote cleaner air. The environmental effects of industrialization were especially concentrated in cities. Unsanitary conditions and overcrowding afflicted many American cities, where outbreaks of disease, including cholera and typhoid, were common.Untreated human waste was a major environmental hazard as rapidly growing cities lacked sewer systems and relied on contaminated wells within city confines for drinking water supply. In the mid-19th century, after the link between contaminated water and disease was established, many cities built centralized water supply systems. However, waste water continued to be discharged without treatment, due to misplaced confidence on the part of public health officials in the self-purifying capacity of rivers, lakes, and the sea.