The Industrial Revolution
(Published in the newspaper Amigoe on the 12th of February 2025)
In the last article, we learned that modern humans (homo sapiens) left Africa and spread to Europe and beyond. Then, the Neanderthals disappeared from Europe. Later, the giant animals also went extinct. What happened next?
Agriculture
When megafauna vanished at the end of the ice age around 10,000 years ago, humans had to shift their focus to agriculture to stay alive. This was made possible by the warmer climate. The nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle came to an end. Farming meant humans had to settle down permanently in specific locations. The population continued to grow. This led to the development of villages and eventually cities. Around 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, the first cities were established in southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).
This marked the start of the Bronze Age. Bronze is an alloy made up of copper and tin (the ratio of tin is usually between 10 and 30%). It’s stronger than copper. The ability to make bronze was a big deal because it allowed people to create much stronger tools and weapons. They also needed a way to keep track of how many animals they owned or how much they harvested. After all, they wanted to know how much stuff they had. And if they weren’t interested in that themselves, the king wanted to know so he could tax them. From the symbols used to record possessions, like the number of farm animals or the size of the harvest, the script also came about during this time. First, it was cuneiform in Mesopotamia, and later, hieroglyphs in Egypt.
Technology kept advancing at a rapid pace, and the population skyrocketed. This led to the Industrial Revolution around 1750 in England. Before that, everything was made by hand, but now machines did the work. Factories popped up everywhere, and production went through the roof. Prices dropped, and the population kept growing.
Industrial revolution
While technology has brought many benefits, it’s also had some not-so-great effects. You know how factories used to smoke a lot? Well, that’s because they burned fossil fuels, which released greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the air. And guess what? That’s caused global warming. Global warming is causing all sorts of problems, like rising temperatures and melting ice caps.
- The heat is rising, and it’s causing some serious problems. It’s not just making it uncomfortable to live outside, it’s also hurting our economy and our environment.
- You know how diseases used to only be found in warm places? Well, they’re starting to pop up in cooler areas too. And guess what? Those pesky insects that used to die off in the winter are now thriving in the warmer weather.
- But that’s not all - the ice caps and glaciers are melting, and that means sea levels are rising. Think about places like Punda and Otrobanda, which are already at risk of flooding.
- And here’s another thing: the ocean is getting more acidic because of all the extra carbon dioxide we’re putting into the air. Lime dissolves in acid, and that’s not good news for marine animals with lime skeletons, like corals.
- Oh, and one more thing: the ocean is getting warmer too, which means storms and hurricanes are becoming more frequent and intense.
Countries in northern Europe with a temperate climate, like the Netherlands, might experience a much colder climate in the future, even though they’ve been warming up recently. It sounds strange, but it’s true! The Netherlands is warmer than Canada, which is at the same latitude, because of the warm Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream brings warm and salty water from the tropics to the north. It cools down and sinks to the bottom, then flows back to the south. This is like a heat pump. But when the ice sheets melt, cold and fresh water, which is lighter, floats on the northern sea. The warmer and saltier water is stopped. The heat pump stops, and it gets colder in the countries that had a temperate climate because of the Gulf Stream’s warming effect. The glaciers could then grow again. This won’t happen anytime soon, but it’s not impossible in the distant future.
The Industrial Revolution
Climate crisis
We’re all pressing climate buttons without seeing the effects. The Neanderthals are gone, and the megafauna is too. Are we headed for another extinction, this time of our own? We’re not living up to our name, ‘homo sapiens,’ or wise man!
Closing off
This is the last article in this series of five articles on human development. In short, the following has been discussed. Life originated in the sea. From the sea, life has moved to the land in the form of amphibians. On land, the first reptiles have developed from the amphibians, and from these the mammals. Between about 250 million years and 66 million years ago, the earth was dominated by dinosaurs. After the extinction of the dinosaurs as a result of a meteorite impact, the mammals were able to develop at a rapid pace.
About 6 to 8 million years ago, our ancestors split from apes and started evolving. They began walking upright, their brains grew bigger, and their intelligence soared. In short, they became the modern humans we know today, the Homo Sapiens. They spread across Europe, Asia, and America. The Neanderthals, our closest relatives who lived around 50,000 years ago, are now extinct. The giant animals they hunted during the ice age also disappeared 10,000 years ago. After the ice age ended, modern humans started farming. Cities began to form, and they learned to write. Technology advanced rapidly, leading to the release of greenhouse gases.
The Earth is getting warmer because of all the stuff we humans are putting out into the air. We’re now in a super important time called the climate crisis. We don’t know how it’ll end, but we can’t just sit back and do nothing! That would be a really sad way to end something that’s been going on for billions of years!
Even a small country like Curaçao can make a big difference in fighting climate change. And an island like Curaçao, with low-lying areas and a warm climate, is the first to feel the benefits of our successful efforts to stop global warming. It’s up to our government and each of us to take action. If we don’t, we’ll see higher temperatures, damage to nature and tourism, stronger hurricanes, and rising sea levels that could literally submerge parts of Curaçao.
5. The Industrial Revolution