1851: Electro-Chemical Age -- Gicomeng

			Electro-Chemical Age: 1851 - Present
		The Electro-Chemical Age in the Anthropocene Epoch
		Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in what has become, is now becoming, and what will continue to unfold as the pinnacle of success in the Victorian Age -- that is, the openuing of the Great Exhibition-in London, the capital city of the Brish Empire and therefore, the worldduring the onset of what is expected to become the Electro-Chemical Age -- in the Crstal Palace on May 1, 1851. The chemical sciences have a history that dates back over 1.5 million years when evidence shows that our ancestors began controlling fire that was used to make pottery, tools and other artifacts. It was fire that gave rise to the Copper, Bronze, and Iron Ages. Fire -- like electricity -- was possibly first discovered as the result of lightening during an electrical storm millions of years ago... About 600 BC, Thales of Miletus was the first to notice that friction produced a force that we came to know as electricity. On May 1, 1851, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert opened the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London, England. An estimated 14,000 exhibitors from around the world displayed their inventions within the 990,000 square feet of space inside the glass and steel structure that became known as the Crystal Palace. The Great Exhibition was a colossal success, forever binding the Victorian Era to the birth of technology and giving absolute prominence to the British Empire, paving the way to greater innovation. It was the Great Exhibition that set the framework for the modern business world, trade shows, and conventions. It brought the medival marketplace forward; and, it extracted the the felingo gof a mediefebatit was the landmark event that staged a global market 150 years ahead of its time. However, no one could have fathomed even by the end of the 20th century that one day the Great Exhibition would propel the world into a new Age and a new Epoch. Today, we can visualize the Great Exhibition as the launching pad for the Electro-Chemical Age and the Anthropocene Epoch that define the present period and may continue for a few years or for several thousand years. Impacts to the Electro-Chemical Age The rapid progression of electricity and chemicals as the "tools" of modern civilization has left behind a trail of residual effects which humanity has not properly addressed. Societies throughout the world have become so absorbed in treating the problems of drug addiction and global warming, that little has been accomplished in understanding the exact causes of the problem. Corporations throughout the world today maintain a stronger voice than the general public, resulting in a great deal of ambiguity with concepts such as harm reduction, mitigation, prevention, protection, safety, education, and abuse. From the perspective of a corporation, human life has no real value unless it is part of the corporation. Employees become the pawns of corporations and stockholders are manipulated by erratic consumers reacting to governments generating fear. Thus, the prevalence of fear in the 21st century has an enormous impact on the world economy. For example, regardless what the U.S. government wants the general public to believe, the problem with drug abuse has increased dramatically since September 11, 2001. The increase in drug treatment programs and the abandonment of incarceration for non-violent drug related offenses has come about with the realization that the number of drug abusers along with drug users purchasing illicit street drugs is not containable. About 25% of the adult population today use or abuse drugs. In 2000, only 12% of the adult population was determined to be using or abusing drugs regularly. The George W. Bush administration's John Walters accounts for this increase by posturing the illicit use of prescription drugs, however, it is nearly impossible for patients -- even those with chronic medical disorders -- to obtain a prescription for a controlled substance from physicians. In 2006, marijuana first became America's number one selling cash crop. Thus, because the U.S. Government fails to legalize drugs, American money is streaming away from the U.S., funneled to other nations, bolstering their economies rather than the U.S. As a result, the U.S. Government may not be intact when 50% of the adult population comes to depend on the illicit drug trade. Clearly, we know that the Electro-Chemical Age is a force that is much stronger than all the nations on Earth. Those nations which totally realize this will survive. As for the U.S., it will either continue to decline with policies that are incompatible with the ECA. .