RETHINKING THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN A CHANGING WORLD: A CASE STUDY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TEXTILE INDUSTRY ON CONTEMPORARY ENGLAND

The industrial revolution had marked the beginning of the age of machine.It shaped the world we are living in. The industrial activity broughttremendous changes in almost every sphere of life. The textile industrywhich was one of the earliest and most prominent industries led to theemergence of the booming fashion industry. It is that fashion industrywhich is now creating tons of industrial waste and counted as one of thebiggest polluters in the United Kingdom. The adverse industrial impacts onenvironment prompted the environmental activists, fashion entrepreneurs,students, and other citizens to shift to sustainable practices. There is astrong inclination to adopt sustainability in the industrial process. Themounting call for sustainability raises two important questions. Was theIndustrial Revolution indeed a ‘revolution’? And if that was the case, did itmake the world, more specifically, the environment unsustainable? Shouldthe Industrial Revolution be blamed for the environmental crisis in theUnited Kingdom?