One of the short term impacts of the Industrial Revolution was that jobs that were formerly done by skilled craftsmen and women working at least somewhat autonomously were increasingly done by less-skilled workers, using machines, in a far more disciplined factory setting. Weaving, for example, was a craft that carried considerable prestige in England until the early nineteenth century, when new inventions made it possible to mechanize the process. This led to the outbreak of a series of violent protests led by disaffected weavers known popularly as "Luddites." Over time, industry after industry witnessed a process known as "proletarianization," as formerly autonomous workers and small farmers were drawn into factories by economic forces largely beyond their control. This process happened quite quickly, and was not, as the Luddite example suggests, uncontested by workers.
One long term effect of the Industrial Revolution is still with us today. The Industrial Revolution was founded on carbon-based energy--first coal, then petroleum products. The effect of burning these fossil fuels is only now becoming evident to us. The consensus of climate scientists is that human activity that began with the Industrial Revolution has led to climate change--"global warming." We are only beginning to understand the impacts of this development that is a direct consequence of the Industrial Revolution.
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