Industrial Environmental Management. Tapas K. Das
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mass production. The Model A was incredibly expensive, and Ford had to shut his main plant for months to retool the production line for his new models. While the new car sold well initially, sales dropped precipitously as the Depression deepened. “Mass production is not simply large‐scale production,” wrote the department store magnate Edward Filene, in 1932. “It is large‐scale production based upon a clear understanding that increased production demands increased buying” (Hounshell 1984). Mass buying became difficult when people had little money with which to buy the products of industrialization. Urban building slowed precipitously during the Depression too. Since cities were the focal points of industrialization, urban citizens suffered disproportionately when production waned. Of course, when the United States sank into the economic downturn of the Great Depression, both urban and industrial growth decreased sharply.
2.5 Important Technological Developments
The commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to a small number of innovations, beginning in the second half of the eighteenth century (Bond et al. 2003). By the 1830s the following gains had been made in important technologies:
Textiles – Mechanized cotton spinning powered by steam or water increased the output of a worker by a factor of 500. The power loom increased the output of a worker by a factor of over 40 (Ayres 1989). The cotton gin increased productivity of removing seed from cotton by a factor of 50 (Wickham 1916). Large gains in productivity also occurred in spinning and weaving of wool and linen, but they were not as great as in cotton (Beckert 2014; Landes 1969).
Steam power – The efficiency of steam engines increased so that they used between one‐fifth and one‐tenth as much fuel. The adaptation of stationary steam engines to rotary motion made them suitable for industrial uses (Landes 1969). The high‐pressure engine had a high power to weight ratio, making it suitable for transportation. Steam power underwent a rapid expansion after 1800.
Iron making – The substitution of coke for charcoal greatly lowered the fuel cost for pig iron and wrought iron production (Landes 1969). Using coke also allowed larger blast furnaces, resulting in economies of scale (Landes 1969; Rosen 2012). The cast iron blowing cylinder was first used in 1760. It was later improved by making it double acting, which allowed higher blast furnace temperatures. The puddling process produced a structural grade iron at a lower cost than the finery forge (Landes 1969). The rolling mill was 15 times faster than hammering wrought iron. Hot blast greatly increased fuel efficiency in iron production in the following decades.
Invention of machine tools – The first machine tools were invented. These included the screw cutting lathe, cylinder boring machine, and the milling machine (Hounshell 1984).
As the nineteenth century was drawing to a close, three very special individuals made their entrance on the US national stage. Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, and Theodore Roosevelt were to write the first pages of modern environmental history in the United States, which in turn led to the birth of the modern environmental movement early in the twentieth century. However, pollution and environmental degradation was a fact of life across most of America during the first half of the twentieth century, and phrases such as “the smell of money,” “good, clean soot,” “God bless it,” “it's our life‐blood,” and “an index to local activity and enterprise” were used to describe air pollution.
At this point of time, muscle and animal power were replaced with electricity, internal‐combustion engines, and nuclear reactors. At the same time, industry was consuming natural resources at an incredible rate. All of these events began to escalate at a dangerous rate after World War II. Soon after, in the late summer of 1962, a marine biologist named Rachael Carson, author of Silent Spring, the best‐selling book about ocean life, opened the eyes of the world to the dangers of attacking the environment (Carson 1962). It was perhaps at this point that America began calling in earnest for reform of the destruction of nature and constraints on environment laws that addressed these issues. It all began in 1970 with the birth of the EPA. For additional literature regarding Early History of the American Environmental Movement and American technology, the interested readers are referred to the book by Philip Shabecoff, titled A Fierce Green Fire (1993). This outstanding book, as well as Ponting's A Green History of the World (1991), and Ruth Cowan's book, titled A Social History of American Technology (1985), is a “must” for anyone who works in or has interests in the environment.
Industry is the axis to gear up the economy of a modern society – known as the indispensable motor of growth and development. On the other hand, it has been identified as a major source of environmental degradation and pollution. Therefore, development without destruction and environmental sustainability and sustainable development are the urgent needs of our time. The problem we are facing is how to strike a balance between the benefits of rising living standard and its cost in terms of deterioration of the physical environment and quality of life. In the past, the danger of polluting air, water, and land was not fully recognized, but now there is no doubt that it is a matter of great concern.
Famous Minamata Disease in Japan (1956), Flixborough (1974), Love Canal (1978), Three Mile Island incident (1979), Bhopal gas tragedy (1984), Chernobyl Atomic Reactor accident (1986), and Tennessee Valley Authority Kingston Coal Power Plant Toxic Ash Spill in Emory River (2008) have reminded us that industrialization has posed a serious threat not only to humans but also to animals, aquatic life, and vegetation cover. On one hand, industrialization has helped us to raise the standard and quality of life, but on the other it has deteriorated our environment. Thus, pollutants fate and transport in environment through human activities, e.g. acid rain, smog, global warming, ocean acidification, wild fires, cancer, are worst possible forms of pollution which is a direct result of industrialization.
Industries degrade the environment and pollute in the following ways:
1 Use of natural resources by industries, as it destroys nature and affects natural environment. Wheat, rice, barley, corn, cotton, trees, plywood, rubber, sugar cane, iron, coal, oil, natural gas, etc. are all natural resources for food processing, packing, paper, clothes, and other finished products. Thus, increasing needs of industries have resulted in over exploitation and stress on natural resources.
2 Residues and by‐products of industries are released in water, air, and land with or without any treatment which pollutes the water, air, and land, affecting the air quality, aquatic life, and ground water.
3 Fossil fuel used by industries like coal, kerosene, diesel, and nuclear energy pollutes the air in the form of smokes, soot, small particulate matter, smog, ozone, and radioactive wastes.
4 Noise is also a major by‐product of industries that cause noise pollution to human health.
5 Industrial wastes, particularly hazardous wastes and radioactive wastes, have become a major environmental pollution problem.
2.6 Industrial Disasters
2.6.1 Bhopal: The World's Worst Industrial Tragedy
Thirty three years ago, on the night of 2 December 1984, an accident at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released at least 30 T of a highly toxic gas called methyl isocyanate (MIC), as well as a number of other poisonous gases. The pesticide plant was surrounded by shanty towns, leading to more than 600 000 people being exposed to the deadly gas cloud that night. The gases stayed low to the ground, causing victims' throats and eyes to burn, inducing nausea, and many deaths. Estimates of the death toll vary from as few as 3 800 to as many as 16 000, but government figures now refer to an estimate of 15 000 killed over the years. Toxic material remains, and 30 years later, many of those who were exposed to the gas have given birth to physically and mentally disabled children. For decades, survivors have been fighting to have the site cleaned up, but they say the efforts were slowed when Michigan‐based Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide in 2001. Human rights groups say that thousands of tons of hazardous waste remain buried underground, and the government has conceded the area is contaminated. There has, however, been no long‐term epidemiological research which conclusively proves that birth defects are directly related