How Urban Growth Threatens Society
...no landfill space for the rest of Sydney. (REFERENCE) The Industrial Revolution and its threats to society England experienced a huge population increase due to a larger supply of food made available by the agricultural revolution, and by the growth of medical science and public health measures, which decreased the death rate and added to the population base. This population increase resulted in urbanisation. Until the industrial revolution, most of the population was rural. However, by the mid-nineteenth century, half of the English people lived in cities. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were only around “24 cities in Europe with a population of 100,000 by 1900 there were over a 150 cities of this size”. (Schrover, S. (2003). History of International Migration Site. Retrieved 3, May, 2005 from http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/migration/chapter3.html) This obviously caused huge threats to societies living conditions, due to the masses of people crowded together. The factory towns of England tended to have many “badly built apartments, while the mining towns became long rows of company-built cottages”, (Taylor, P. (1970). The Industrial Revolution in England: Triumph or Disaster? London: D.C. Health and Company) which had minimal shelter and offered little more. Another threat was the overall downfall in the socio-economic and cultural situation of people. World trade and politics became more influential in the every-day life of villagers. With the new industrial age, a new quantitative and materialistic view of the world took place. This caused the need for people to consume as much as they could, which still happens today. This caused a huge threat to society’s morals, and values in life. Britain had used up its forests, but large deposits of coal were still available for industrial fuel. There was a large labour supply to mine coal and iron, and to man the factories, so the number of factories increased dramatically. This was not good for the environment. Since the beginning of the revolution the factories and industries have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by double. Also it has threatened our society today as in our drive for consumerism, our planets natural resources are being depleted rapidly. Brisbane In 1901 the population of Brisbane was 120 650. In 2004 the population had grown to 1,733,200. (Woods, G. (2001). 1901: A socio-economic profile of Australia at federation. Sydney: Statistics Group) Brisbane has seen tremendous growth over the last 100 years. In 2003-2004 population figures showed that Brisbane had the largest population increase of all the local Government areas in Australia. There are numerous social threats as a result of Brisbane’s urban ...