Think of life in pre-industrial era. No cars, no lights, no machines, no phones, no internet, no planes. The fastest you can get from one place to another depends on your horse and your riding skills. The same is true for sending messages. You want to finish all important work before the sun sets because getting any work done in candle/lamp light is kind of difficult. You are almost entirely dependent on the land for your needs and if does not rain enough or it rains too much you could starve to death because there is no cold storage to keep food. You could store some food in the form of sausage, pasta etc. but that’s about it.
In the last 300 years since the industrial revolution the population of the world has grown from around 60 million to almost 8 billion. Humans have been around for 50,000 years, at least. They have been farming for 5000 years. And reproducing like crazy only for the past 300 years. Not that pre-industrial man did not have a lot of children and but only a small percentage survived. Since 20th century, humans for the first time have a reliable method of contraception and yet the population has exploded. And while we may cry about the extra burden the increasing population has put on out planet, the fact that the planet has been able to support such a huge population is only because of the industrial revolution.
Industries have increased the amount of food we are able to harvest from the land. Industries have made advanced medicine possible. Industry has left enough leisure time for people to come up with new inventions that make our lives better.
Answers & Comments
Answer:
Think of life in pre-industrial era. No cars, no lights, no machines, no phones, no internet, no planes. The fastest you can get from one place to another depends on your horse and your riding skills. The same is true for sending messages. You want to finish all important work before the sun sets because getting any work done in candle/lamp light is kind of difficult. You are almost entirely dependent on the land for your needs and if does not rain enough or it rains too much you could starve to death because there is no cold storage to keep food. You could store some food in the form of sausage, pasta etc. but that’s about it.
In the last 300 years since the industrial revolution the population of the world has grown from around 60 million to almost 8 billion. Humans have been around for 50,000 years, at least. They have been farming for 5000 years. And reproducing like crazy only for the past 300 years. Not that pre-industrial man did not have a lot of children and but only a small percentage survived. Since 20th century, humans for the first time have a reliable method of contraception and yet the population has exploded. And while we may cry about the extra burden the increasing population has put on out planet, the fact that the planet has been able to support such a huge population is only because of the industrial revolution.
Industries have increased the amount of food we are able to harvest from the land. Industries have made advanced medicine possible. Industry has left enough leisure time for people to come up with new inventions that make our lives better.