Acid rain
Acid rain is rain that is more acidic than normal. Acid rain is a complicated problem. Primarily caused by air pollution, acid rain's spread and damage involves weather, chemistry, soil, and the life cycles of plants and animals on the land and in lakes and streams. This form of air pollution is currently a subject of great controversy because of its worldwide environmental damages. For the last ten years, this problem has brought destruction to thousands of lakes and streams in the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe. Scientists have discovered that air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels is the major cause of acid rain. Power plants and factories burn coal and oil. Power plants use that coal and oil to produce the electricity for our homes and to run our electric appliances. We also burn natural gas, coal, and oil to heat our homes. The smoke and fumes from burning fossil fuels rise into the atmosphere and combine with the moisture in the air to form acid rain. The main chemicals in air pollution that creates acid rain are sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Acid rain usually forms high in the clouds where sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with water, oxygen, and oxidants. This forms a
The pollutants in acid rain cause problem in human respiratory systems. This mixing process is called acid deposition. In that cycle, water evaporates from the land and sea into the atmosphere. It can harm us through the atmosphere or through the soil from which our food is grown. Metals such as zinc, nickel, and copper are commonly obtained by this process. Sunlight increases the rate of most of these reactions. In 1990, the United States spent $35 billion on paint damage. Acid rain does not only damage the natural ecosystems, but also man-made materials and structures. Toxic metals themselves are dangerous, but when combined with other elements are harmless. A substantial amount can float up into the atmosphere and be transported to another area and return to earth as sulfur dioxide. The interaction between the water droplets and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and also from chlorine, which comes from the salt in the sea, gives rain an average pH of about 5. Water moves through every living plant and animal, streams, lakes, and oceans in the hydrologic cycle. When these acids fall back to the earth they do not cause damage to just the environment but also to human health. Governments have passed laws to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, but it is no use unless people start to work together in stopping the release of these pollutants.
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