The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was the turning point in the Earth's ecology, and the relationship between humans and the environment on the whole. However, in our pursuit of developing our countries at a fast pace, we started overusing the natural resources. As a result, many resources are now on the verge of exhaustion or short supply.
The changes in agricultural, mining, manufacturing and transportation industries improved the basic quality of human life. However, at the same time, these changes depleted the natural resources of the planet. Also, the release of carbon emissions into the atmosphere has polluted the environment. And due to rampant deforestation, there are not enough trees left that can absorb these carbon emissions. The Industrial Revolution started in Britain in the 1700s and then quickly moved to the United States, before progressing to other parts of the world. The processes saw sweeping increases in production capacity, but at the same time they literally wiped away the environment of its resources. Industrialization also increased the growth of population, as the standard of living increased. Hence, our dependence on the natural resources increased manifold and soon a large majority of the resources became scarce. There is also growing inequality between the way the benefits of the resources are distributed between the rich and the poor.