Industrialization is central to economic development and improved prospects for human well-being. The benefits of industrial production can be seen in all aspects of life from the range of consumer goods available, to the efficiency of transportation systems, to the astounding advances made in computers and communications technology.
The positive economic and social results of industrial growth have been accompanied by serious environmental degradation, however, as well as growing threats to health from occupational hazards. To some extent, these problems are analogous to those of early industrial Europe. In the 19th Century, the shift from a rural, agrarian society to an urban, industrial society initially involved widespread social and economic disruption, unemployment, homelessness, pollution, and increased exposure to health hazards both at work and at home. Many of these same problems characterize cities in the developing world today.
Despite the similarities between earlier European industrialization and current changes in the developing world, important differences exist in the scale and pace of industrial growth. The earlier Industrial Revolution spanned nearly 200 years; recently, countries like Thailand and Indonesia have been undergoing similar changes in just a couple of decades. As part of this growth, industrial wastes are growing in quantity and becoming more varied, more toxic, and more difficult to dispose of or degrade. Densities in cities where much of the industrial production is located far surpass those in developed countries, so the number of people exposed to pollutants is potentially much greater.
Furthermore, a substantial share of industrial growth in developing countries revolves around the transformation of raw materials into industrial products such as steel, paper, and chemicals. A wide range of pollutants is associated with these industries. In contrast, much of economic growth in developed countries is now in the service sector and communication, which are inherently less polluting.
This rapid industrial growth has made water pollution, air pollution, and hazardous wastes pressing environmental problems in many areas of the developing world. Industrial emissions combine with vehicle exhausts to cause air pollution, while concentrations of heavy metals and ammonia loads are often high enough to cause major fish kills downriver from industrial areas. The lack of hazardous waste facilities compounds the problem, with industrial wastes often discarded on fallow or public lands, in rivers, or in sewers designed to carry only municipal wastes.
The future scale of environmental and health problems from industrialization in developing countries will depend greatly on policy actions taken today. If current production practices remain the norm, air pollution and toxic effluents from industrial production are likely to increase rapidly. If, however, choices are made to invest in more efficient and less-polluting technologies, many of industrialization’s negative impacts on health could be avoided. The potential the developing countries have to leap-frog to cleaner production is enormous, given gains in technology as well as the levels of private capital now flowing into these countries. Decisions regarding the location sites of those industries, the technologies used, and the type of precautions for occupational safety could have a tremendous impact on the future health of the people who live and work there.
1 komentar:
In my opinion, Industrialization is a very important aspect to improve the economy of a country. The benefits of industrial production can be seen from all that we have such electronic devices and otherr, all that of industrial production. Developing countries are now improving the production process more developed countries such as countries in Europe consequently growing health threats from unhealthy environments. Not only that, in developing countries many people do the urbanization of rural to urban. This leads to unemployment, homelessness disorder, social and crime. Developed countries are more concerned at this point in the service sector such as education, entertainment, defense and finance. And communications sectors such as computers, telephones and other reduce pollution. Therefore, developing countries are more likely to damage the environment than developed countries. It was because developing countries want to increase their economic system. and they want their people to live in prosperous.
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