American Environmental History as it Relates to Commodification and Industrialization

Introduction

In the contemporary society, Environment has played a role in shaping the American society over a given period in history. Environmental history is a new discipline of study which came into existence in the period between the year 1960s to 1970s. It came into effect due to the incline in the environmental problems which affected United States as well as the whole world. These problems comprised of the air and water pollution which was caused by the pesticides, depletion of the ozone layer and enhancement of the greenhouse effects whose cause are the human beings through their daily activities. Scientists and environmentalists states that the American environmental history is based on ecology and geography. During the beginning of the 20th century, the geographers did stress the influence of the physical environment on civilization. Throughout history, the basic needs have bound human beings to nature. As people live and spread throughout the planet, their effect and influence on an environment increase over a given period of time. Thus, through their actions, they tend to modify the forest, plains, and deserts so as to meet their needs, market demand solve their current problems without thinking about the future. Therefore, the American history tends to provide the brief explanation of the human interaction which has contributed to present America. The argument shall be related to the commodification as well as industrialization effects on the environment.

The commodification of nature, industrialization and the American History

Industrialization and American History

The American history has been explained by the first, second and the third generation of scholars, and environmentalists' who have given different point of views about issues concerning the American history. In accordance with Worster, the environmental history seeks to give a voice to set autonomous or independent energies which is not derived from any culture. He did argue that the historians should use the wisdom of nature in the assessment of the human-induced actions to the environmental change. He puts a lot of emphasis on the modes of productions which people used during the emergence of industrialization in the United States as some of the contributors of climatic change in the region. In order to comprehend how human beings destroyed the ecosystem so as to meet their ends, there is need to comprehend the consequences of industrialization as well as the rise of capitalism which marked the central drama for the environmental history. Indeed nature cannot be defined independently without human influence. Therefore, it is the reason why the human behavior and actions play a major role in influencing the manner in which the environment is being preserved or destroyed over a given period of time. According to certain studies, it has been suggested that the environmental conflicts tend to mask the social power struggles and for that the environmental historians need to pay more attention to the categories of the social differences. In accordance with Worster's definition of an American history, the historians were urged not to forget the influence of urbanization on the natural environment as they foster on the social and economic aspect of life. He stated that the main issue which defines the historical American environment is the province of urban, technological, social architectural and cultural historical conditions. These thus led to the second generation of historian inheriting a built environmental problem caused by industrialization. The argument behind this is that in the human-built world, the forces have been present in various forms and the prejudices about the exurban locations have prevented the historians from realizing and identifying these forces.

The main reason why the urbanization process has had a greater influence on the environment is due to the fact that people in varied American societies have changed the manner in which the urbanites and the suburbanites define nature. They have made the environment to be a process of environmental mystery. Besides, they have replaced the modern organic cities with the modern sanitary ones and have designed perks purposely to interject nature. The parks thus create artificial nature which makes the society not to appreciate the initial attributes of natural world as well as their benefits to the whole society. Also, they have created systems and networks which distance the production process to consumption and the impacts of the urban living and have come to romanticize creatures and wild spaces. It is the cities which have proven to be the incubators for the most absolute and abstract distinctions between what nature is and culture components of the society.

In accordance with the metropolitan history, the environmental built problem which has been experienced in America for the past three decades ago was due to the failure of urban environmental literacy. Most of the environmental historian shift attention to other factors as oppose to taking into consideration the effect industrial revolution on an environment. Beyond the emergence of cities, the human activities have also created a major influence to the change in the environmental conditions over time. For instance, mining have had its own variant as far as the building of the environmental problems in United States is concerned. It is the existence of mines in various mineral rich regions which have formed the inorganic environment which was first lived by man in the American Society. It is the mine environments which are compared to the modern technological dominance. For instance, when LeCain did examine the effect of copper mining on an environment, it was found that the process did produce a low grade copper ore but created a massive scars and dead zones on the surface of the earth. However, scholars tend to argue that the technology and industrial revolution cannot be separated from the ecological system and we need to see the effect and massive destruction the mining as well as other activities has on the environment. Besides, in the manufacturing environments, nature tends to lack coexistence given the types and volume of fumes and solid as well as liquid wastes which are released to the atmosphere. These tend to pollute the environment as well as making it unbearable for the plants and animals to thrive and survive. Also, through the use of hydrocarbons to fuel machines which have rapidly affect the entire world's production, the American society have been exposed to dangers whose solutions can only be gotten by man. For instance, currently, in America, it is only a smaller portion who understands what nature is as well as the meaning of natural resources. It is only the few individuals who does not trade-in the natural resources to other goods which have economic value as they ignore the inhibited value which exists in them. Therefore, through these happenings and the directions people have taken, the ecosystem is in the dire need of help. Then, to save the environmental condition of America, there is need for the proper development of strategies which shall aid to conserve and mitigate the identified environmental hazards which have affected the American Economy since 1990's round table meeting to the current situations.

In the historical situation, there is another school of thought which postulates that cities are not populated by an undifferentiated humanity who thinks uniformly about the concept of nature. These premises show that scholars cannot talk about the cities as an independent ecology of logic without interfering with the social, economic and cultural diversity. Indeed it is the metropolitan historians who have played a vital role in the social turn in the environmental history. It is thus paramount to consider metropolis environmental actions to be the basis of the environmental justice and scholarship in the American historical world. In accordance with the sturdy of Gary which was done by Andrew Hurley, he managed to demonstrate that the class and race tend to influence how Gary residents embrace the urban-industrial environment. Besides, he also showed that the spatial reorganization of the city which resulted from the postwar suburbanization as well as pollution work hand in hand to contribute to the environmental degradation. Therefore, in relation to the industrialization, it is the human actions and the development of the sophisticated machines which are used in production process which have created a lot of problem to the environment, a situation which have subsequently cause an erosion of nature and its natural habitats. These thus led to a low level of environmental appreciation as well as management of nature as they pursue the economic gain.

Commodification of nature and American History

In the recent past, there has been an incline in the need to make an environment a good place to be and live after a period of massive destruction due to human activities. Many a time, the existence of nature have been taken for granted and its appropriation is due to the existence or development of the legal act wherein American history, they have been preceded with a lot of conquests and protests since these laws did mean a loss to the society as well as other communities. In most of the primitive societies, land was not considered a good since the inhabitants presumed it was their territory. It formed a shared asset which was necessary to provide food and other materials which were quite essential for survival and a burial ground for the relatives as well as their ancestors. Therefore, its commodification means an assertion of the human control over nature, a process which shall negate the system character of nature. These thus make the environment to cease from being an ecosystem entity but rather a succession of privatized plots of lands. These thus pave the path to the destruction of nature since lands will become the private means of production thus affirming the mercantile proposition of profit optimization, a situation which shall propagate the financial gain as oppose to the environmental management over a given period of time.

In accordance with Economics, a good is an asset which is produced for being sold, a thing which does not happen in case of the natural resources. Therefore, while banking on these, then it can be deduced that nature does not form part of a good. Each authentic good is an individualized unit which is perfectly separate from the rest. It thus means that due to this independence, the destruction of one good does not lead to the destruction of another. The earth did exist 4 billion years ago while life did come into being 500 million years later. Studies show that it is the human beings that form the latest product of the evolution of life on the entire planet. It is thus evident that the Americans population never produces the earth; rather it is the earth which has produced all Americans. Therefore, it is not good for us to take over everything as human beings as well as commodifying the earth's human resources. Besides, we should not consider the natural ecosystem as a good since if that takes place, then it will means that we are to value the earth and its resources. It is advisable to realize that the natural ecosystem is an indivisible, holistic character which does not conform to the mercantilism reductionism. It is through the proposition that nature is divisible which has led to the deterioration of the United States' environment as the emergence of the urbanization in the region takes root. The Americans should understand that nature provides the society with goods and services which should be sold for a profit but rather be a free asset to the public to utilize and enjoy. It thus means that an enjoyment by one person does not provide any harm to the other person since the resources should not be scarce in supply. Therefore, due to the fact that they are privatized, the reverse is always true as human beings struggle for the scarce resources to satisfy their unlimited wants. Thus, these are quite replica to the state in the American history where the public resources have been privatized and are now used for trade and trading activities to acquire economic value as oppose to appreciating nature. They have been divided in a manner which they serve the purposes of individuals as well as the entire public. It can thus be manifest that, there is need for the society to re-evaluate their moves, actions and stands to comprehend that nature provides functions for support, regulations, production, and information which are very vital in the maintaining and enhancing livelihood in the contemporary society.

The American environmental history tends to conform to the capitalist society. It is a type of society which tend to value the things which the market values and does not have any respect for whatever the resource which has no market value. It is what has happened in the American society where they do not take into consideration the environmental goods and services even if they tend to create value and are quite paramount for the survival of humanity. However, the society tends to ignore all these so long as they do not have market value, a process which results in destructions as well as deterioration of the flora and fauna. The key reason why the market collides with nature is due to the fact that the market is not an appropriate measure which can be used to achieve harmony in the American society. Nature normally shortens the life cycle of the materials, a process which minimize the transport and energy consumptions which is embedded in the materials. It thus means that nature recycles most of these materials at the local levels as oppose to the human activities which creates another environmental effect with the by-products in form of garbage. However, on the contrary, the American market economy tends to move towards globalization and industrialization, a situation which have led to an incline in the massive transfer of goods and services within and without America. These have enhanced the exhaustion of the natural resources hence environmental degradation as well as damage. These come as a result of an incline in the consumption of these resources by the humans domestically and internationally. Besides, nature tends to provide a growing biodiversity and ensure a stability and survival of living things. On the other hand, the market cannot provide this but rather will make countries to specialize in production a situation which have led to the standardization of the products and the production techniques. It is the case which modern America is facing with its industrialized agriculture, manufacturing and processing growth where the specialization has greatly led to the reduction of the genetic base hence the depletion of resources. It thus makes the economy to fully depend on the importation of the raw materials from other countries so as to sustain its production process and ensure that the industries' going on concern is achieved. These can thus explain that it is the human characters which have caused a lot of havoc to the economy over time. It is human greed for the processing of the raw materials into finished goods, specialization and emergence of the open economy for trade is what has contributed to the current state of the American economy over a given period of time. These have massively led to the rapid clearance of the forest covers so as to meet the market demands which did exist locally and internationally.

In the contemporary American society, the political systems have undergone a transformation in America to form the market economy system. It thus means that money, land, and work become goods hence remain to be a personal property. It thus goes towards a mere environment of exchanging the products. These were evident in ancient America and even in the pre-capitalists societies. The key idea was that the American society, as well as the world, was to be guided by the forces of demand and supply existing in the free market. Therefore, when the society has left the forces of the market to operate without taming capitalism and reduction of work on the natural resources, then nature is and will be life-threatening. It will even tend to endanger the life system itself. Therefore, the idea of the self-adjusting influence of nature by the market is a stark utopia. The institution should not exist in the long runs since these will result in the loss of biodiversity as well as the natural environment which is good and can serve all our interest of the society with certainty. It is because it will tend to physically destroy the man and transform our surrounding into a wilderness, a situation which is quite detrimental to the Americans as well as the entire society.

Impacts of Industrialization as well as Commodification of the environment as pegged on the American Environmental History

In the past, there have been various steps which have been taken to conserve the environment and ensure that that the environment has been restored to its original state. The conservative methods ranges from the early utilitarian conservation ideas and practices to the early 19th century conservation and the Romantic Movement. Besides, even the conservationists had join the movement to aid in curbing the influence of the industrialization, urbanization and the emergence of the westward settlements. These were after the dramatic reduction in the American forest cover. These resulted from the massive and rapid clearing of the forested land by the people, a situation which attracted the attention of the naturalists and scientists. Due to Commodification or privatization as well as industrialization, there are various impacts which they have put across the market. These comprise of the issues which have caused a lot of environmental degradation as well as depletion of the natural resources over time. They comprise of the following:

Air Pollution

Due to the industrial development over the history, the factories as well as industries have been emitting the poisonous and hazardous gases to the atmosphere. Some of the gases which have been emitted to the atmosphere which have proved to be dangerous to the environment along the American environmental history comprise of the dioxin, asbestos, methylene chloride, perchloroethylene and other metals such as chromium and lead. These have been released by the coal-fired power plants, factories, oil refineries, steel mills, chromium electro-planting facilities and dry cleaners have greatly contributed to the high level of air polluters in the historical environmental polluters in the entire American history. These have led to the dereliction of the environment, a situation which have led to the incline in the climate change hence emergence of the current vagaries of nature such as drought, wildfires, rising of the ocean levels as well as improving of the societal welfare.

Land dereliction as well as degradation

In the situation where there has been a massive incline in the rate at which the individuals cut down trees to meet the demand which the market economy demands which the market economy requires. For instance, an incline in the mining of the minerals for the industrial purposes tend to leave the land bear with a lot of ugly scenes, a situation which makes environment unsuitable for the developmental programs as well as activities. Besides, when the land is cleared and the land has no vegetation, the land will be prone to weathering a process which shall enhance erosion. These will erode topsoil hence makes the land unattractive for farming. I believe it is through these historical environmental activities which have led to these conditions which are existing in the current American ecosystem. Therefore, if the reclamation procedures are not developed, then the entire society is prone to danger either in the short long run.

Soil contamination due to the release of affluence given the privatization

Due to the privatization of land and other natural resources, incline in the mining, factories, and manufacturing plants have led to the incline in the release of waste to the environment, a process which has led to an incline in the soil contamination. These wastes can be traced from the industrial revolution era in the American Environmental History. The wastes contain numerous heavy metals which pollute the farmland and the urban soil. The most common metal is the lead metal. When there is a high level of precipitation, these contaminations tend to be emitted into the soil. Other main sources of soil contamination in America are linked to the mining tailing, industrial landfills, and chemical spillage during the transportation and distribution of the mines and other industrial products. These thus affect the performance of the soil as well as the growth of the society over a given period of time.

The problem of habitat destruction

Due to the urban expansion and industrialization, the American society has been experiencing a reduced species biodiversity in the ecosystem due to human disruptions. For instance, the bison population was decimated when the settlers cleared a land to construct homes, for agriculture and for business ventures. These had led to the displacement of birds and other animals due to the logging operations, strip mines, gravel pits, industrial explosions, oil spillage road construction and proliferation of the factories. Besides, these have also led to the incline in the global warming hence making the environment more inhospitable to given species of plants and animals. These thus have led to the incline in the extinction of species as well as the incline in the level of deforestation which shall be very detrimental to the entire societies.

Water pollution

As the American society grow and open to the international trade system, the factories and industries grow in size. These factories thus dump the wastes into the rivers and nearby lakes. These wastes tend to pollute these water bodies in form of liquid, gaseous or solid forms. For example, the pollution from the smokestack tends to fall on the soil in form of acidic rain on both water and land. These pollute the soil and water, a situation which makes them quite unsuitable for usage by the same human being. Besides, highly toxic substances which originate from incinerators have been deposited in the landfills where it can leach into the groundwater. Also, the water treated from the paper mills can tend to release the pollutants into the water body, a situation which results in a high level of pollutants into such water bodies. These can thus be quite harmful to both plants and animals which are fully depending on these water bodies for survival. The process thus makes the entire society the worst place to be either in the short or long run.

Conclusion

American environmental history is linked to the human activities and the changes which had been brought forth by industrialization and commodification of the natural resources. Due to the emergence of the industries and commodification of land as well as other natural resources, the point of focus did switch from environmental maintenance to emergence of market economy. The resources were divided into private ownership and everyone did seek to make profit out of them. These thus resulted into environmental degradation and dereliction. These did arise due to the rate of water, land and air pollution which have contributed to the loss of biodiversity as well as the erosion or depletion of the ozone layer. These thus have led to the incline in the other factors such as climate change which subsequently causes a lot of problems such as drought, diseases and food scarcity. Therefore, there is need to reverse the notion of valuing the natural resources and pursue the conservation and preservation measures so as to mitigate the problem and enhance the initial meaning of our natural environment before its damage by our own activities.

References

"Commodification of the Natural World." Accessed January 23, 2018. students.uta.edu/jm/jmm8930/race_nature/race_nature_6.html.

Agreement to Pay France for the Louisiana Purchase; 4/30/1803; Perfected Treaties, 1778 - 1945; General Records of the United States Government, Record Group 11; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/agreement-louisiana-purchase, February 1, 2018]

Cronon, William (2003). Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. 2nd ed. Hill and Wang.

Crosby, Alfred (1986). Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe. Cambridge University Press.

DeJohn-Anderson, Virginia (2007). Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America. Oxford University Press Canada.

file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/9789401789806-c2.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/9789401789806-c2.pdf

Merchant, C. (2007). American environmental history: An introduction. Columbia University Press.

Merchant, Carolyn (2007). American Environmental History: An Introduction. Columbia University Press.

Merchant, Carolyn (2012). Major Problems in American Environmental History. 3rd ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Nash, R. (1972). American environmental history: a new teaching frontier. Pacific Historical Review, 41(3), 362-372.

Opper, Fredrick. "Nursery Rhymes for Infant Industries, No. 15: 'O' is the Oil Trust, a modern Bill Sikes; he defies the police, and does just as he likes." Digital image. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005685052/.

President Thomas Jefferson Confidential Message to Congress Concerning Relations with the Indians; 1/18/1803; President's Messages from the 7th Congress; Presidential Messages, 1791 - 1861; Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/jefferson-confidential-message-relations-indians, February 1, 2018]

Rand McNally And Company, and Union Pacific Railway Company. New map of the Union Pacific Railway, the short, quick and safe line to all points west. [Chicago, 1883] Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/98688838/. (Accessed February 01, 2018.)

Rinehart, Nicholas T. (2016). "The Man That Was a Thing: Reconsidering Human Commodification in Slavery." Journal of Social History. 50, no.1:28-50. SocINDEX with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed January 26, 2018).

Water is not (yet) a commodity: Commodification and rationalization revisited. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://quod.lib.umich.edu/h/humfig/11217607.0002.103/--water-is-not-yet-a-commodity-commodification?rgn=main;view=fulltext

White, R. (1985). American environmental history: the development of a new historical field. Pacific Historical Review, 54(3), 297-335.

Silver, Timothy (1990). A New Face of the Countryside: Indians, Colonists, and Slaves in South Atlantic Forests; 1500-1800. Cambridge University Press.