Short answers, pulled from the story.
Heavy industry is defined by large and heavy products, equipment, and facilities that require complex or numerous steps. This sector demands higher capital intensity than light industry due to its physical backbone of large machine tools and huge buildings.
Steelmaking emerged as a traditional example during the mid-19th century through the early 20th century. Artillery production and locomotive manufacturing followed similar paths throughout the industrial age while shipbuilding replaced wood with steel as the primary material for construction.
Many East Asian countries relied on heavy industry as key parts of their development strategies including Japan and Korea. Government economic policy drove reliance on heavy industry among Japanese firms like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Korean firms such as Hyundai Rotem.
The Soviet Union's industrialization in the 1930s focused heavily on producing trucks tanks artillery aircraft and warships to maintain military parity with foreign capitalist powers. Planning prioritized heavy industry over consumer goods production to ensure national defense capabilities throughout the 20th century.
Heavy metals sink into the ground contaminating crops that reside among them and making vegetables or grain unsafe when exposed to soil contamination from heavy metal concentrations. Long-term exposure to industry-based air pollution causes cardiovascular diseases and respiratory issues in children while lead chromium cadmium and arsenic form dust fall particles harmful to the human body.