Acid Rain
"I am for, the reduction of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, emissions, by 90% by the year 2010. We need to take drastic action because the effects on us are all very serious. We must protect ourselves and safeguard our future."
Acid rain is the term used to describe one of the worst effects of nature. Acid rain is a mixture of sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides, which are gasses being emitted into our atmosphere. These gases combine with water droplets in the atmosphere, to produce acid rain. These toxic gasses enter the clouds, so rain is highly acidic. As a result of acid rain, we suffer from terrible air pollution, so the government should recognize, this problem, and
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Acid rain has seriously harmed forests, soil, lakes, rivers and buildings. In Scandinavia large areas of coniferous forest are dying. Trees and vegetation has been destroyed. Increasing acidity in the soil has become an economical effect for farmers, as their crops are dying and they do not have much to sell. Swamps and rotting plants give off sulphur dioxide. When soil is acidified, tree roots are damaged, leaving then not able to draw enough nutrients to support the tree. When acid rain falls on trees, it makes their leaves turn brownish, yellow and the tree can no longer carry out photosynthesis properly. Some natural causes such as volcano eruptions, and lightening, do also contribute, but only account for 10% of pollution causing acid rain. Birds in the forest can be harmed if they live in affected waters or feed on fish living in affected areas.
A social problem is when people breathe in smog; acid rain in one of its many forms, Acid rain can also harm people indirectly. This happens when people eat fish caught in affected lakes, or rivers. Also, if the water source is acidic enough, it will react with copper or lead pipes to harm humans. It also washes aluminum into the water supply. People also get disease, and loss of families, becomes a serious thing. Central heating
Acid rain is caused by air pollutants in the atmosphere. These air pollutants are mainly from man made resources such as factories and automobiles. The burning of fossil fuels is also one of the biggest factors that pollutes the air and causes acid rain. The primary emissions from man made resources are sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. The rain
Acidity of an ecosystem, measured in pH, is a crucial factor to the survival of a species in an ecosystem. Altering it can have result in dramatically negative effects, in spite of the fact that pH of an ecosystem has been dramatically changed over a relatively short period of time due to various human activities. For example, acid rain is a major environmental problem that is caused by human-made pollution. When fossil fuels are burnt to get energy, pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides get mixed into the rainwater and eventually are evaporated into the atmosphere. These gases enter the atmosphere, and mix with water in the water cycle to form an acidic mixture of water and gases. This water falls in the form of acid rain, which
When fossil fuels are burned to create electricity pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released into the air. They then mix with oxygen and water in the air to form acid rain. These chemicals can travel long distances in the rain before being deposited. (Epa.gov)
First is the acidification. Chemical reactions involving air pollutants can create acidic compounds. Sometimes, when an air pollutant, such as sulfuric acid combines with the water droplets that make up clouds, the water droplets become acidic, forming acid rain. Acid rain can kill trees and harm animals, fish, and other wildlife. When acid rain gets into soils, it makes the soil become unfit for many living things due to the change of nutrition. Acid rain also changes the chemistry of the water, harming aquatic life and even people’s health.
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
“North Americans have been smelting ore and burning fossil fuels for generations. In the past, the gases went up ordinary chimneys or small smoke stacks, to descend upon near by areas and pollute them,” states author, Robert Collins. Almost everyone knows what acid rain is and has a vague idea of the consequences that exist as a cause of it. Most people however do not realize the severity of acid rain. The essay “Acid Rain: Scourge from the Skies” by Robert Collins was very effective in showing the true severity of acid rain. By using excellent developmental devices, Robert Collins was able to write an effective essay that is appealing to today’s society, as well as
Through the advancement of technology, the issue of the air surrounding the earth might have been one of the most often matters to be brought up and discussed among scientists and engineers. Acid rain is one of the more serious environmental problems and it is closely related to the air pollution. Nowadays, it has affected large part of US, Europe and Canada. People start to be concerned about acid rain since it is getting worse in the passed years. The effect of the acid rain most often leads to another bad effect. For example, the acid rain will cause the lake and streams to be acidic. Thus, it will also affect the ecosystem inside the water.
Acid rain can hurt the plants in the forest environment because when the plant start drinking the acid rain it makes the plants natural defense weaker. In doing that they are easier to die by diseases because they do not have much natural defense to protect them. It can also cause fires to the environment. Acid rain is known to take the nutrients out of soil killing trees, plants, and crops. With the low nutrients it does damage to the red spruce tree
Acid rain has a large concentration of hydrogen ions mainly coming from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. It could kill living organisms, damage buildings, and monuments.
It’s been 3 months since the acid rain has started. The year is 2022 where humans have become so careless that they allowed toxins into water making this dangerous substance. It is almost like a battlefield if you go running through the rain. At first, you will notice sudden, sporadic pain that that will slowly go through your body if you only contact with it for 5 minutes. The pain will go away in a couple of hours if you don’t have contact with the rain. The second stage is when you start seeing burns in your body. They become scars that will never go away unlike my dreams and hopes. The third and final stage is paralysis and possible death. It is mustard gas. The properties are so similar that people sometimes called it “mustard rain”.
Bunker fuel is a type of liquid fuel, which is fractionally distilled from crude oil (Geek, 2015). According to the oil industry’s material data sheets, the oil is a complex blend of hydrocarbons derived from various refinery streams, usually residue from the oil refinery processes (Wagstaffe, 2015). In comparison with petroleum products, bunker fuel causes high pollution and is extremely rough. When bunker fuel is burned, it releases sulphur and nitrogen into the atmosphere. These oxides then combine with water in the atmosphere and form acids, which is classified as ‘acid rain’. Generally, acid rain has not been a problem in Australia, but issues have been raised with acidic rain in industrial areas (high levels of sulphur oxides and nitrogen).
Coal mining is bad for the earth, there is no other way to put it, but why is it bad for the earth what drawbacks does coal mining have? It turns out a lot, it's terrible for the environment, coal contributes to global warming and the effects of acid rain. This being said, if we continue to do it, there must be a very good reason for ruining our earth, right?
Short-term exposure to SO2 can harm the human respiratory system and hinder breathing. Moreover, SO2 and other sulfur oxides can contribute to acid rain which can harm trees and plants by damaging foliage and slowing down growth. On the other hand, the US government has passed laws to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide. These regulations have managed to reduce 62% of sulfur dioxide emissions in the air from 2000 to 2014. Nevertheless, it is everyone’s responsibility to stop the release of this and other criteria pollutants. If acid rain destroys our environment, it will eventually destroy us as
Humans are more responsible for causing acid rain than natural sources. Areas with large populations and heavy traffic are susceptible to acid rain, because car emissions contain high amounts of nitrogen oxides (Lerner and Lerner 2). Industrial pollutants are the leading cause of acid rain; they may raise the acidity of a region’s precipitation more than tenfold (Gorman 13). Power plants burn fossil fuels, like coal and oil, for energy. Sulfur dioxide is a by-product of fossil fuels and is emitted into the air after being burned. Nitrogen oxides are less abundant but are still by-products of the same fossil fuels (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). Both of these gasses raise the acidity in precipitation greatly.
Acid rain can cause reproductive defects on fish and other aquatic life. It can destroy aquatic ecosystems, leaving only a clear, but empty body of water. Acid rain was a problem in 1980, and steps were taken in order to fix it, and since then, air quality improved and will continue to improve as more and more steps are taken to control pollution. Modern technologies such as a cars, power plants, and factories consume fossil fuels in order to run. By consuming fossil fuels, cars, power plants, and factories release harmful gases into the air. These harmful gases then react with water droplets in the clouds to produce nitric and sulfuric acids, which turns normal precipitation into acid precipitation.