Industrialization is the use of machines to assist or replace human workers and hand tools so that each worker can produce more units of a product than they would otherwise be able to. The machines are powered by some non-human energy source; historically, they were initially powered by moving water, then by steam, and more recently by electricity.
The first major example of industrialization was the emergence of textile factories in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, marking the start of the Industrial Revolution. Until then, cloth had been woven by hand on looms in homes in villages scattered around the country. This was followed by factories producing other products, including pottery, paper, glass, chemicals, metals, and even food products.
Industrialization has brought profound changes to society, the economy and even the natural environment. On the one hand, it has allowed people to own and enjoy more, and often better, products than they otherwise would and has frequently led to a higher standard of living. It has played a key role in urbanization and promoted technological advances that have improved the quality of life for many people. In some cases, however, it has had negative effects by forcing workers to work long hours in dangerous and unhealthy conditions.
Industrialization's effects on the environment have been mostly negative. Particularly serious has been the accelerating accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a result of the massive burning of coal and other fossil fuels, largely to generate electricity to power the factories but also to power some of the products produced by them, most notably automobiles.
Other environmentally destructive effects include the large-scale pollution of air, land and water from the releasing vast quantities of harmful chemicals and from the depletion of natural resources, including fresh water. Industrialization of agriculture, and the rapid growth of population that it has allowed, has resulted in a huge increase in land devoted to food production, consequently destroying much habitat and contributing to a nearly unprecedented mass extinction.