A touch of history

The industrial revolution marked a pivotal point in history when natural resource extraction for financial gain and the ideology of progress through technological advancement fueled American’s economic growth. Since the mid 18th century more of nature has been destroyed than in all prior history (Hawken, et al., p 2). Industrialization created economic prosperity, lead to vast material development and permanently changed the landscape of human kind. Capitalism expanded its reach; by employing human labor to extract natural resources that were later manufactured for the creation of goods, wealth and reinvestment were generated for the capitalist. The ideology of the industrial system essentially used finance capital, human capital and manufacturing capital, to transform natural capital (defined by our resources in nature), to create consumables that we have learned to equate with progress, accomplishment and later, status (Hawken, et.al., p 4). Through utilizing what at the time were abundant resources; water, trees, minerals and those more labor intensive supplies such as coal, copper and oil; railroads, highways and bridges were built to transport goods across the nation. Cities, the modern hubs of commerce, grew to accommodate more industries. Suburbs sprung up as the population increased and more homes, schools and hospitals were built to services the American dream. All the while extraction of natural resources went unabated, yet it was only a matter of time before the pendulum swung from an abundance of resources to scarcity. Having equated economic growth with energy use, the capitalist system was forced to examine their consumption and reluctantly modify their production techniques to save what was left of our scare natural resources.