Acid Rain Essay

To conclude, acid rain includes many elements that make it well known worldwide today and also puts my mind into a new perspective of the effects that are happening in front of my own eyes that I am not noticing. Not to mention, that if I were to pursue the career of becoming an environmental engineer, I would be able to help protect the environment from acidity and become more aware of the solutions to this problem when the environment cannot neutralize the substances on its

Acid rain, to our eyes, is not much different from regular rain, but the contents of that precipitation can be devastating to plant-life and ecosystems. Acid rain is formed in the atmosphere when gases such as sulfur dioxide are oxidized; sulfur trioxide is converted into sulfuric acid by a chemical reaction with water, or when nitrogen dioxide reacts with hydroxide to form nitric acid. The most oxidation reactions are with ozone, hydrogen peroxide, and of course, oxygen. There are many causes of acid rain, both natural and man-made sources of gases like dimethyl sulfide, which is the most abundant biological sulfur containing compound, and also nitrogen dioxide, but some sources are more plentiful than those.

Acid rain as a worldwide threat began when Swedish researcher Dr. Svante Oden theorized in the 1960s that pollution blowing from other countries was the cause of Sweden’s increasingly acidic waters. He then published his findings in the local newspaper and then popular scientific journals. He demonstrated for the first time ever, that rain and surface water throughout Europe were becoming more acidic and the winds were scattering sulfur and nitrogen based pollutants across the continent. His findings also showed how acid rain was causing the decline in fish, forest growth and disintegration of materials.

Acidification of the surface of the water is a major problem in areas of the northeastern United States, in eastern Canada, and in southern Scandinavia, it also occurs in other parts of the world as well (Baker & Schofield, 1982). The acidification on the surface of water causes many fish populations to decline in soft-water aquatic environments, that are exposed to acid precipitation (Neville & Campell, 1988). This acidification of the surface water is caused by acid rain. Acid rain or otherwise known as acid deposition is a term that includes any form of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that comes down from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms. These forms include rain, snow, fog, hail or even dust that can be acidic.

Although rain water is naturally acidic, sitting at pH of 5.66.5 due to the dissolved carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Acid rain further increases this acidity, to a pH lower than 5.6, making the rain harmful to many things. Including; plants, soil, marine wildlife and many different kinds of building materials (eg. Limestone and marble will get eroded by acid rain). Note: Every drop of “1” in pH level increases the acidity by 100x.

These places have acid rain because of the amount of SO2 and NOx that is being created. The burning of fossil fuels that electric companies do release sulfur dioxide that spreads through the air, which forms acid rain. Heat that radiates off internal combustion engines(cars) forms nitrogen dioxide. Which is also used in the making of acid rain. With the amount of cars that are being used in one city, acid rain is bound to be a problem.

In theory, airborne chemicals could cause several types of detrimental effects on aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems. These effects could include visible symptoms of injury, decreased growth, and alteration of physiological processes

Acid rain causes long term damage to environmental habitats such as forests and lakes. When sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are released into the atmosphere they react with atmospheric molecules, sulfuric and nitric acid are formed; the equations on the slide show the reactions that occur between the compounds and HO molecules in the air. These acids are then deposited as either rain or dust, depending on the climate that they are in. The acids damage every structure they land on, as a result forests degrade and soil and water sources are poisoned; acid rain can also occur in cities, eroding buildings and even vehicles.

Acid deposition is a widespread problem found all over the world. Since the beginning of the 1900s, countries had started to face with environmental problems that are occurred by acid deposition or accumulations of acids and acidic gases in the atmosphere and the surface of Earth. These accumulations can be classified as wet deposition and dry deposition. As wet deposition refers to acid precipitation, which is unusually acidic according to the pH scale (the scale numbered from 0 to 14 to measure acid levels in pH), dry deposition refers to an accumulation of acidic gases and acidic particles. Most of the release of chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by

Acid rain affects many facets of the earth including surface waters, aquatic animals, forests, automotive coatings, several materials (metals, paint, limestone, etc…), visibility and human health.

Acid rain is a great problem in our world. It causes fish and plants to die because earth's rainwaters are contaminated. It also causes harm to people as well, because we eat fish, drink water and eat plants that are polluted by acid rain. It is a problem that we must all face together and try to get rid of. However, acid rain on it's own is not the biggest problem. It causes many other problems such as aluminum

Acid rain has a terrible affect on water life. Even if the acid rain does not fall straight into the lake, for example, it may enter from rivers and streams. Some of the life in the lake such as fish and plants may end up dying, because they cannot survive in acidic lakes. Thousands of lakes in Scandinavia have no more life

There are several types of water pollutants. The first type of water pollutants involves diseases-causing agents. These include viruses, bacteria, and protozoa. The second type of water pollutants is wastes that can be decomposed by oxygen required bacteria. This causes other organisms in water, like fish, to die. Another type of water pollutant is water soluble inorganic substances like acids and salts. These substances will make water hazardous to drink and will cause death to things that live in that same water. Nutrients are also another agent of water pollutant. Nutrients are water-soluble which will cause overgrowth of algae and other plants in water. As a result, to growing algae and plants in water, this will diminish the water’s oxygen supply causing fish to die. Water can be polluted by oil, plastic, and pesticides as well, which are dangerous to not only humans but all animals and plants that correspond to the water.

Acid rain is formed when some compounds like nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide is withdrawn into the air by cars, factories and anything that gives out fumes. These compounds in a gaseous form travel high in the air to mix with the water vapor high up in the air to make acid rain. These two compounds are very easily soluble therefore it can be taken by the wind very far so it spreads really easily.

We do not realize how big our human footprint is when it comes to water pollution and depletion. Often, we get to the point where it is too late to fix the problem at hand or our genius intelligence kicks in just in time. The film "Water" hosted by Dr. M. Sanjayan and the article "To The Last Drop" by Laura Parker, help point out exactly what we have done as humans to contribute to the destruction and saving of our number one survival source, water.