Acid Rain
Acid Rain
As the century past, the industrial society kept advancing. However,
many advantages of the industrial society brings us also has a down side. One
of the adverse effects of industrialization is acid deposition due to power
plant, fossil fuel and automobile emissions. Acid rain is the popular term but
the scientists prefer the term acid deposition. Acid rain can have adverse
effects on the environment by damaging forests or by lowering the pH of the
lakes and making the water too acidic for many aquatic plants and animals to
live.
The father of acid rain research is an Englishman named Charles Angus
Smith who suggested in, 1852, that sulfuric acid in Manchester, English, was
causing metal to rust and dyed goods to fade. One source that causes acid rain
are fossil fuel. Fossil fuel has many usage in our society. Such as to power
electric power plants, industrial boilers, smelters, businesses, schools, homes
and vehicles of all sort. These various energy sources contribute 23.1 million
tons of sulfur dioxide and 20.5 million tons of nitrogen oxides to our
atmosphere worldwide. When fossil fuels are ignited like oil and coal, they
release carbon dioxide, a so-called greenhouse gas that traps heat within the
earth's atmosphere which causes global warming that is taking place right now.
Also, it releases sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and various metals (mercury,
aluminum) that are released into the atmosphere that reacts with other airborne
chemicals (water vapor and sunlight) to produce sulfuric and nitric acid which
later can be carried long distance from their source and be deposited as rain
(acid rain) but acid doesn't just came from rain but also in the forms of snow,
hail, fog, and mist.
Forests are a complex ecosystems that involves trees, soil, water, the air,...
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