From the precise moment, man first polluted the world, from burning fossil fuels to urbanization, many people were uneducated about the threatening long-term effects that came along with these massive innovations. One of the many serious threats is acid rain and a lot of people don’t notice the effects of this worldwide dilemma. It is now apparent that acid rain will now affect our everyday lives. Acid precipitation impacts the environment, the people, many animals, and industries in the world. When we burn fossil fuels nitrous and sulfuric gases are released into the atmosphere and these gases react with water and oxygen, therefore, making acid rain.(National Geographic,2017) Acid rain comes in many forms like snow, hail, and dust particles too. (Environmental Protection Agency, N.d) Acid rain destroys many habitats, ecosystems, wear down buildings and statues, and can contaminate many bodies of water in Canada. Acid rain is prevalent near the eastern side of Canada and has also made a huge impact in a city named Sudbury. Acid precipitation was very common in the mid 19 century due to industrialization and lack of technology and knowledge of pollution. We need to find new ways of producing electricity we burn too many fossil fuels, therefore, creating carbon emissions that are extremely harmful to the world and people around us and triggering the acid rain effect. Acid rain is a giant problem for the world and especially Canada it affects the environment around us and
Acid rain is rain that has become acidic, because of air pollutants in the atmosphere. Rain has a normal pH level of around 5-5.5 which is only slightly acidic. 7 on the pH scale is the neutral and anything below that is considered acidic. Acid rain has a pH level around 4 which is 10 times more acidic. Acid rain can fall in many different ways and has many effects on the environment.
In Chicago, acid rain has been corroding many statues, buildings, and monuments. Acid rain can do more than just burn materials, it can also destroy them. Buildings have been corroding for years on end, which makes them unstable and hazardous. This has become more and more of a problem throughout the years and has not been improving. Acid rain also creates a gypsum coating on materials that is insoluble and remains as a coating on the surface of a material (Allaby, 2003, pgs. 84-95). As a result of acid rain buildings will become uninhabitable and unsafe for people in the buildings and people in the vicinity of the building. Acid rain has very negative effects not only on buildings but to people and nature. The chemical substances in acid rain
When President Richard Nixon was in charge, the whole environmental policies started to properly rise in American. Back in 1989 when President Bush issued what would the following year be called the Clean Air of 1990, the United States was taking notice in world climate. Over the years, the country as a whole has strayed from putting emphasis on these issues. Graphs show us that we did better back in 1990 than we did in 2004. Compared to many other countries such as Germany, Japan, Canada, UK, Italy, France, and Australia, the United States releases an incredible amount of more greenhouse emissions. President Bush wanted to take care of three major issues of the time that would benefit every American, “The President proposed legislation designed to curb three major threats to the nation 's environment and to the health of millions of Americans: acid rain, urban air pollution, and toxic air emissions.” (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2015). Acid rain is something that harms plants, marine life, and humans, it has high levels of nitrate and sulfur dioxide. Too much of acid rain can begin to kill species because of its toxic chemicals. Professor Pecorella 2015 on a class lecture of public opinion said that,“public opinion reacts to action”,since this is true, then this would validate what EPA does because the majority of people do believe in global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency would help ensure a safer future for America, one that would allow
gives many ideas as to the ways of preventing the emission of sulphur dioxide into the air. “Acid Rain: Scourge from the Skies” deals with a subject that is relevant to scientists and might be able to help them further their research. Correspondingly, people who are researching the topic of acid rain for school, work or just for curiosity would find this essay appealing because it answers a lot of the possible questions that they might have. For example, if someone wanted to know how acid rain
Acid rain causes a cascade of effects that harm or kill individual fish, reduce fish population numbers, completely eliminate fish species from a water body, and decrease biodiversity. As acid rain flows through soils in a watershed, aluminum is released from soils into the lakes and streams located in that watershed. So, as pH in a lake or stream decreases, aluminum levels increase. Both low pH and increased aluminum levels are directly toxic to fish. In addition, low pH and increased aluminum levels cause chronic stress that may not kill individual fish, but leads to lower body weight and smaller size and makes fish less able to compete for food and habitat. Acid rain can hurt the environment in many ways one that gets affected by acid rain
Though acid rain is a big issue, there are ways it can be prevented. One of the biggest ways acid rain can be stopped is by lowering your energy consumption. Now you might think, ‘what does energy have to do with acid rain’? It actually has a big affect. By switching off the lights when you leave a room, turning off your computers & televisions when they aren’t being used. Closing the air conditioner/heaters when you leave your home can make a big difference, because when less electricity is used, the pollution from power plants decreases. Power plants also known as power station is an electric generating station
Acid Rain and acid deposition are pollutants that are very difficult to escape. It can reach every part of the US and many parts of the world. According to the EPA, Acid Rain is a term that tends to be broad. It’s when precipitation contains Acidic particles such as Sulfuric, or Nitric acid. These acidic particles can get carried all over by different means such as rain, wind, and even fog. Once it hits the ground it is then washed away into water systems. Acid Rain is something that many organizations are trying to have some control over due to the health issues it can cause in people and wildlife.
What is acid rain? Acid rain is rain that becomes acidified in the atmosphere. In this situation, acid rain can cause lots of damage, and we are going to have to pay for it.Our earth is getting destroyed by many things. These things can be air pollution, water pollution or even global warming. One main thing is acid rain. Acid rain destroys water, forest, and it kills wildlife. All of these damages affect ocean life and ecosystems.
208). The problems exist all over the world and harms our eco system, lakes, plants, animals and even human beings. There are many things that can be done to eliminate or even reduce the effects of acid rain. Congress did create the Acid Rain Program in 1990 to control and reduce acid rain. They also enacted the Clean Air Act to control pollution. They enacted policies that would monitor and reduce emissions for acid depositions, implemented energy efficiency and applied more alternative energy sources that would reduce acid rain to our environment (Cherrran, 2013, p. 1). However, as this problem continues, there is so much more we can do to reduce or even eliminate this problem. One way to reduce acid rain would be to lower our energy consumption. We all need to take advantage of using solar power and electric cars if at all possible. Factories and power plants need to continue to
Burning of fossil fuel in industries and transport sections, industrialization and urbanization have led to increase concentration of gaseous and particulate pollutants in the atmosphere leading to air pollution. The increased used to tall stacks for power plants and industries; atmospheric emissions are being transported regionally and even globally. Rain is one of the essential ingredients for human life. Although rain is naturally acidic, it is being increasingly acidified by pollution from homes, factories, power stations and cars. The term used to describe the problem is "acid rain". Acid rain has become a major environmental concern for several decades, it has broad economic, social and medical implications and has been called unseen plague of industrial age. The major components of acid rain is sulphur dioxide, sulphur trioxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide dissolves in rain. These components deposited as dry and wet depositions. One obvious consequence of acid rain is corrosive effect on exposed stone and metal structures, but there are also many biological that are not obvious. However, like many environmental problems, acid deposition is caused by accumulative actions of millions of individual people. It may not been seem as though acid rain is much as an issue, but it can cause more than you can imagine.
Acid rain is caused by a chemical reaction which is when compounds such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere. These chemicals are transported by the current of the wind. The SO2 and NO react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form more acidic pollutants, known as acid rain. A small portion of the acid rain is from natural sources-such as volcanoes-most of it is from the burning of the fossil fuels. SO2 and NO very easily dissolve in water and can be carried far by the current of the wind. They can become a part of the, rain, sleet, snow, and even fog that we experience on certain days.
The environmental challenge facing society that I have chosen to discuss is Acid Rain. The effects of acid rain were first noticed 150 years ago in Britain, and to this day are still an issue. The pH scale allows us to decide whether a substance is acidic or basic. If the substance has a pH of 7, it is neutral, below seven it is acidic, or above seven it is basic. Precipitation normally has a pH of 5.6, slightly acidic due to the CO2 in the atmosphere mixing with the rainwater to create a weak carbonic acid. Human induced pollution also plays a role in acid rain by releasing harmful gases such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. This is mostly done by the burning of fossil fuels and in industrial processes such as metal production (Middleton,2008). In agriculture, ammonia from nitrogenous fertilisers and manures escapes to the atmosphere by volatilisation (Tennesen, 2010).
Acid rain is a global phenomenon that has many causes and even more different consequences as a result. The main cause of acid rain is the burning of fossil fuels and motor vehicles. The result of these actions get released into the atmosphere. All of these fuels that are getting burnt and running motor vehicles are releasing multiple acids into the atmosphere that gets collected by the clouds and stores them in their moisture. As a consequence, when it rains, the acids that have been collected by the clouds then transfer to the water and get released with the rain. Hence the term “acid rain”. The acids released into the atmosphere can also be collected by snow and hail. These acid pollutants in the air can be carried by wind current extremely easily, therefore this phenomenon can affect many places far away from the initial site.
You’re probably wondering, “What is acid rain?” In this essay I will be discussing what acid rain is, the nature of acid rain, and the appearance. Also, I’ll be telling you about the influence acid rain has on people’s health and different effects. Last but not least, I will be typing about some preventions against acid rain and what techniques can be used.
Beginning with this phenomenons name, acid rain, it has always had an distinguishable pull of attraction towards me. Commencing from the first time I heard about it in the years of my elementary, I have always had a keen interest in this oddly named rain. One would think any type of rain is beneficial to all natural living forms, but with my discovery of acid rain it seems not. Along with my envisionment of what acid rain is, it has always been a grey area in my mind and thoughts. Is the rain green? Does it have a smell? Does it sting? I have never had the chance to deeply indulge myself into further studies and research on this such topic. For this reason I believe that this report is an ideal occasion to begin and further my knowledge on acid rain. I will attempt to answer the following questions, “what is acid rain?”, “how does acid rain affect plants?” , “ how does it affect animals?”, “ does acid rain influence people's lives and health?”, and finally “are there any ways to prevent acid rain?”. To conclude, I believe by answering these question, not only will I be more knowledgeable and thoughtful of the earth and the rain cycle but I will finally feed the hunger I have had for knowing what acid rain truly is.