Acid rain is a very big pollution problem in the world. It has killed fish and other aquatic life in many lakes and streams. It harms human health, disfigures monuments and erodes buildings, and, along with other pollutants, threatens forests. The story of acid rain can be compared to the plot of a science fiction movie. In the 1950s an invisible force begins to destroy lakes and rivers, killing trout and salmon. By the 1960s it is harming the waters of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. High-altitude forests are beginning to fade away. City statues are gradually eaten away. The appearance from the damage of the aliens is starting to appear all over. Just as in science fiction movies, the authorities refuse to warn …show more content…
The SO2 created during combustion can be absorbed if an appropriate chemical, such as limestone, is present as the fuel burns. Once the fuel has been burned, the SO2 can be removed from the exhaust gases. Most systems spray a mixture of limestone and water onto the gases. This mixture reacts with the SO2 to form qypsum, a useful building material. Another option is not to burn fossil fuels, but to use alternative energy sources. (What 1) All of these methods for reducing acid gases are expensive, and have drawbacks, so laws have been passed to force businesses to use them (What 1). The best way to reduce them is not to use as much energy in the first place. There are many things that common citizens can do. Such as; turn off lights when you leave a room, don't use cars for short journeys, insulate houses properly, and basically anything at all that uses less energy. There are some temporary relieves for the effects of acid rain. "The most promising strategy for helping lakes with low pH problems is to use lime or limestone to reduce the acidity and raise the pH" (Pringle 80). Lake liming has gone on for decades, and scientists know a lot about its effectiveness. Before exploring this chemical treatment in detail, however, an obvious truth should be stated: Adding lime is hardly a promising strategy for helping lakes
Substances are released which run off into water bodies and toxic to water life. Acidic materials deposited directly from the atmosphere also have the effect of altering the acid balance in water bodies and this too has an effect on the life they support. Acidic deposition onto sensitive buildings causes decay of stonework and other materials.(Environment Agency: Acid Rain, page 1)
What are some of the methods that can be implemented to start lowering C02 levels, and decreasing the effects of climate
The acid rain eventually falls back into our rivers, streams and wells where we intern drink it and this is where the danger begins. The film gave various examples of different places that suffered greatly by contaminated water. The one that stood out most was Lago Titicaca a river found in Bolivia that was contaminated by blood it was devastating to see the people’s main stream in blood red because of the ignorance of the people.
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
For a water system that had become far to acidic and nothing is living. A process called freshwater de-acidification will spring the the water into becoming healthy again. The process starts with add the lime directly to the water body. However in the cases of certain lakes where the turnaround is very quick, the lime is added to the body of water. This has disadvantages though, the main one being that the lime can have an adverse effect on wetland species of plants The advantages, however, are that the effects are longer lasting and metals are prevented from leaching into the lake water from the soil. The alkalinity of the limed lake is increased, the pH increased and heavy metal concentrations decrease back to within safe limits for fish life. The number of species of fish, animals and plankton increases as does biomass production. The chemical equation for liming water is CaCO3(s) + H2SO4(aq) ⇨ CaSO4*2H2O + CO2(g). If your soil or forest becomes too acidic a process called liming will help. Soil pH is a measure of the relative acidity or alkalinity in soils. It is a fundamental chemical property because it influences the availability of nutrients and the solubility of elements like aluminum and manganese, which are detrimental to crop
In the following figure 1, the amount of lakes were present in the summer of of 1975 shows that many lakes existed before the pH level was non existent. As soon the pH level increased, the fish disappeared as well as the lakes. In spite of the fact that there are few spikes once in awhile; it is conceivable that the fish attempted
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
Outline: Intro: • Define acid deposition and its causes • Introduce the three types of damages caused by acid deposition that will be discussed in the first three body paragraphs. • Introduce the proposed solutions. Thesis Statement: Acid Deposition in the United States has caused damages to the aquatic system, the vegetation and the historical statues. Potential solutions to this problem include switching to energy sources other than fossil fuels and removing sulfur from coal. Body paragraphs: I. Discuss how acid deposition is a problem to the aquatic system as it pollutes surface water and decreases species richness.
In general, acid rain affects lakes and streams in two ways, which are chronic and episodic.
If the acid pollution in the air continuously adds up the acidity in the rainwater will increase slowly, but surely.
Another form of industrial waste that contributes to water pollution is acid rain. Acid rain is a product of industries burning coal. The burning of coal produces sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide, and when these chemicals combine with the earth’s atmosphere it forms acid rain The Northeastern part of the United States has the worst acid rain levels in the world. More specific, the states with the highest concentration are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and some boarding parts of Canada and New England area. The falling acid rain can destroy plants and animals in several different ways. The acidification of a lake, river, or stream because of the high acidic levels in the water kills algae. Since algae are the main source of food, for many species of fish, they will also suffer from the high acid levels.
Acid rains as a phenomenon has been identified during the 19th century in Europe, and was attributed the smokes rising from chimneys factories coinciding with the overtime increase of rain acidification especially in Scandinavia. There is a growing interest in acid rains and its destructive effects in the light of the development of global industry especially in the industrialized countries, which consume huge quantities of fuel and release increasing quantities of gases such as sulphur dioxide, hydrogen, and nitrogen oxides which produce sulfur and nitrogenouns acids upon the interactions with oxygen and water vapour. Acids produced remain in the form of fine mist until dissolved in rainfall once occurs and then precipitates as
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 affects thousands of people worldwide and is produced by factories and car fumes. It is the product of humanity and should not happen if we were careful of our carbon emissions. This phenomenon has contributed to many ruined water sources around the world. If acid rain was never a problem then places like Canada would have more forests and trees in Ontario. Also not as much coral would be dying in the ocean. Acid rain is a serious problem that needs to be addressed with caution and must be effectively dealt with before it is too
Acid rain has proved to take a huge toll on Ontario’s ecosystem. However, in this section of the textbook, factors such as effects of acid rain, assessing the effects on soil and water, acidity levels and others, contribute to the main topic of acid rain in an ecosystem. To begin, the downpour of acid rain is due to the emissions from human activities that contain different pollutants/invisible gases that can be very harmful to the environment. In other words, substances containing nitrogen and Sulphur are released into the atmosphere from factories, industries, transportation and so on, where it then goes through a chemical transformation (nitric and sulphuric acid) where it either has a dry fallout, or condensation occurs and the acid descends