Abstract

IMPACTS AND RISKS OF THE INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

Michele Vitolo*

Abstract

The roots of industrial activity may be set around 15,000 – 10,000 years before the present, when basic discovery (how to control the fire) and inventions (agriculture, livestock management, wheel, writing, and language) were made by ancient peoples. These advances have led to the development over the millennia of a variety of industrial processes (typography, food and beverage processing, biotechnology, tannery, mechanics, editorial, steelworks, among others). A great pull in industrial activity occurred in the XVIII century with the industrial revolution propelled by the invention of high productive machines (steam engine, carding engine, internal combustion engine, among others). In parallel with the industrial growth, the environmental pollution also has grown, reaching an insurmountable condition in the 1990s. At that time, an increase of ice melting in the poles, destruction of the ozone layer, high concentration of pollutants in the air, and greenhouse effect were detected and estimated. Since then, several actions have been taken to mitigate those effects on the biosphere, hoping to get around all of them by the end of the 21st century.

Keywords: Human achievements, industrial activity.