The Industrial Revolution and Humanity's Progression Patterns

How did the Industrial Revolution effect humanity’s relationship with the environment?

The Industrial Revolution changed the path that humanity was on, and accelerated the pace by which humanity grew, developed, and changed. Before this Revolution, people primarily lived and worked on farms which took up a vast amount of space, human labor, and natural resources in society. This strengthen the relationship which humanity had with nature, utilizing and optimizing their natural resources available. But, as times progressed and populations grew, farmers began to move into cities, causing great increases in city populations and resources needed to support such increase. In addition to such increase in population, there was also a pressing need for an increase of factories to produce goods. These factories would mass produce items such as food, clothing, and other goods which were to be distributed across the region. The mass production of such items and the usage natural resources placed a huge stress on the surrounding environment. As the pace of the demand of such resources increased, the ability of the environment to provide the necessary resources. This difference in the pace at which human need for resources quickened, and the environment ability to deliver such resources weakened the relationship which both shared with each other. Naturally, the environment is a much more powerful force than humanity’s ability to affect it. Therefore, humanity and nature much strike some kind of a balance between humanity's demands for natural resources and the environment’s ability to meet those demands. A main consequence is the notion of finite resources: all natural resources which humanity strongly depends on are finite and will eventually run out (e.g. coal). Natural forces teach humans that we must either slow down the rate by which they are using up resources or find alternatives to the resources that are currently relied on in society. Humanity has developed a blind eye and a deaf ear to this important question, as we are unable to face the idea that there are consequences if we do not do so. Considering how dependent and non-resourceful society has been for the past 100 or so years, and it is extremely difficult to make that change; but, when resources such as coal run out in the near future, humanity will face a new challenge along with the environment to fulfill the function which that resource provided for such a massive amount of people for such a massive amount of time.