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Global Environmental History of the Industrial Revolution: Work in (Slow) Progress

Prof. Dr. John R. McNeill, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.This talk concerns the ecological impacts of industrialization, c. 1780 to c. 1920. Environmental historians have taken stock of the pollution effects of industrialization in Britain, Germany, the USA, Japan and elsewhere. And they recognize the impacts of burning fossil fuels upon the Earth’s atmosphere and climate. However, there is more to the environmental history of industrialization than that: there are “ecological teleconnections”. The best leather straps for textile mills came from bison hide from the American West. The best insulation for underwater cables came from the resin of a tree found only in Southeast Asia. All the fuels, fibers, ores, and lubricants necessary for industrialization had to come from somewhere, and before 1920 most of them came more or less directly from nature. And they had to come in ever-increasing quantities.This talk considers cotton und wool, lead and copper, palm oil and whale oil among other ingredients of industrialization, and the ecological perturbations that resulted from growing, harvesting, or extracting them.