How Did The Industrial Revolution Affect Wildlife

Likewise, there was also a damaging impact on Britain's wildlife species. For instance, there were two types of moths that lived in Great Britain before the Industrial Revolution,the Typica which is a light color and the Carbonaria which is a dark color. During this time period, dark soot started to cover the trees causing the prior light color bark to turn black. The Carbonaria moth started to blend into the dark trees more easily and they became more abundant in industrial towns. The Typica moth was then easier to spot by birds on the dark colored bark so they had to move to the countryside away from the pollution. Similarly, Before the industrial revolution rivers like the Thames River had an abundance of fish like salmon, but then due

It is said that “This rate of extinction is some 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than the natural rate of species extinction (2-10 species per year) before the human agricultural and industrial revolutions.” (Roger Abrantes) This increase of specie extinction exemplifies one of the main negative effects the Industrial Revolution had on Europe. There was a total dip in wildlife species which disrupted the natural food chain and had a greater consequence on the ecosystem as a whole. Ultimately, the complete lack of concern for Europe’s wildlife demonstrates the damaging effects the Industrial Revolution had on the

During this time period, there was an increase in diseases and health issues across the majority of Europe. When looking at statistics from the 19th century, over 100,000 infants would die before their first birthday, and a study done in 1850 stated that for every 1,000 children born over 300 die before they turned fifteen. Furthermore, there were three main reasons diseases like cholera spread so easily. Firstly, due to the crowded industrial towns and lack of sewage systems people had no way of properly disposing waste, so they would either dump it in their drinking water, or place it in underground pits that were supposed to be emptied regularly by soil men. However neither of theses methods were effective because the drinking water would become contaminated and the pits would overflow releasing waste into houses and the streets. There was also a lack of medical knowledge at the time and when people were brought to doctors they would use medieval healing methods like using leeches and encouraged vomiting which made symptoms worse. Additionally, doctors als thought that disease was spread through “dirty air” and not germs so they didn't know how to treat or properly prevent the spread of diseases like Cholera, Typhus, which was spread by body lice, and Tuberculosis, which would spread due to malnourishment. Due to these reasons over the course of only two Cholera epidemics over 95,000 people died. Not