Discussion: Environmental Implications
When responding discuss how the urban environment served to alter permanently the ways Americans interacted with the natural environment.

Erin P
Urban environments have their own set of environmental issues, any ecological damage caused by human population are increased due to concentrated populations. Large cities became known for diseases, whereas rural areas were considered healthier. During cases of outbreaks the country would see wealthier families that could afford country houses long term visits.
Today we know one of the reasons outbreaks like this happened was because the cities had so many people and no proper sewage systems. Waste from humans and animals would end up washing directly into the drinkable water supply. Indoor plumbing was a luxury for only the super wealthy. The city saw people dumping urine and fecal right into the street, also outhouses weren’t capable of filtering out bacteria either. People would catch water born bacterial infections such as cholera and typhoid from drinking contaminated water.
Today large urban areas can reduce these risks by using proper waste management practices. Household waste water is treated before ending up back in the local water supply. And if someone should catch a bacterial disease such as these medical advancements have produced antibiotics that make these diseases much more manageable.
Large populations also saw huge numbers of disadvantaged immigrants. These immigrants would take whatever work they could often in factories where they would work for long hours for very little pay. After being exposed to substances we now know to be unsafe to human health such as coal dust, they would return to homes that would now be condemned buildings. From these simple facts you can imagine what a dangerous life the immigrants faced on both coasts. In the west Chinese immigrants were living lives similar to what the African slaves faced before the civil war. Freed slaves and Chinese immigrants were the primary force behind contacting the east and west coast lines by rail lines.
In the 1960s scientist and communities started to see the changes in the environment and impact on human health. Even though urban areas now had water treatment facilities and cleaner energy production, we also had machines running on fossil fuels creating air contaminates. And industries being able to do as they wish without any government regulations. After the nationwide protest that today is called the First Earth Day, where millions of people stood up in protect. This helped convince the government that regulations on industry and public services such as waste management. A set of laws were produced under the clean water and air acts.

Melanie M
Urbanization in the twentieth century was a pressure for all to modernize. To modernize everything, from places to live to how each factory or business should conduct themselves. To improve the industrialization for the growing number of people in the U.S., the people began to conduct business in a different way; they needed to produce more for consumption, so they hired immigrants for little money to work long and unsafe hours, to create more items to sell for a greater profit.
Not only were the long hours and unsafe working practices of the twentieth-century harmful to the workers and their families, but also to the environment itself. So much focus was put on commodification that very few were there to fight for environmental conservation, the safety of the workers, and the cleanliness -and safety- of the ghettos where most immigrant families lived. These ghettos were just as dangerous as the workplace, but for different reasons such as how fast disease could grow and spread.
Urbanization was imminent and necessary, for all of the reasons mentioned above. It was necessary to move the country into the future.

Discussion: Environmental Implications When responding discuss how...