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Acid Rain

Acid Rain


THOUGHTS ON ACID RAIN

Acid rain is a serious problem with disastrous effects. Each day this serious
problem increases, many people believe that this issue is too small to deal with
right now this issue should be met head on and solved before it is too late. In
the following paragraphs I will be discussing the impact has on the wildlife and
how our atmosphere is being destroyed by acid rain.

CAUSES

Acid rain is a cancer eating into the face of Eastern Canada and the North
Eastern United States. In Canada, the main sulphuric acid sources are non-
ferrous smelters and power generation. On both sides of the border, cars and
trucks are the main sources for nitric acid(about 40% of the total), while power
generating plants and industrial commercial and residential fuel combustion
together contribute most of the rest. In the air, the sulphur dioxide and
nitrogen oxides can be transformed into sulphuric acid and nitric acid, and air
current can send them thousands of kilometres from the source.When the acids
fall to the earth in any form it will have large impact on the growth or the
preservation of certain wildlife.

NO DEFENCE

Areas in Ontario mainly southern regions that are near the Great Lakes, such
substances as limestone or other known antacids can neutralize acids entering
the body of water thereby protecting it. However, large areas of Ontario that
are near the Pre-Cambrian Shield, with quartzite or granite based geology and
little top soil, there is not enough buffering capacity to neutralize even small
amounts of acid falling on the soil and the lakes. Therefore over time, the
basic environment shifts from an alkaline to a acidic one. This is why many
lakes in the Muskoka, Haliburton, Algonquin, Parry Sound and Manitoulin
districts could lose their fisheries if sulphur emissions are not reduced
substantially.

ACID

The average mean of pH rainfall...