Debate Primer: Industrialization

This week, Political Union will be debating whether industrialization has been good for humanity.

First, an easy introduction on the history of industrialization and the Industrial Revolution. (5 minutes)

• A list of basic pros and cons of the Industrial Revolution (3 minutes)

Two articles from the UN Industrial Development Organization about the benefits of industrialization, especially for low-income countries:

• Why industrial development matters for low-income nations. (5 minutes)

• How industrialization is connected to quality of life indicators. (3 minutes)

How global metrics such as education, health, literacy, and poverty rate have significantly improved since 1800. (10 minutes)

How industrial production of coal is related to climate change. (5 minutes)

• A summary of one set of studies showing that recent industrialization has undone thousands of years of global cooling. (3 minutes). 

A New York Times Op-Ed describing the emerging degrowth movement to halt climate change. (4 minutes)

Image credit: "city" by barnyz is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0