The world in the last decades has witnessed great advancements in many fields and disciplines. The favor goes first to the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century, and to the advancement in many aspects of technology such as telecommunication technology, transportation, mechanical and electrical. These advancements have created new inventions, and relatively increased the living standards for human been; however, those advancements have some negative impact on the environment. The environment is always being the infected element from the human interference.
The taking place activities of cutting trees in forests and lessen the green area in the most noticeable bad effecting activities all over the world. The chemical residues which coming out from factories around the world are affecting the environment badly. Oil spots the cover some places in oceans, seas and rivers are a big threat for the water resources and the different creatures who live in those places. Many threats affect the environment, among those threats there is acid rain threat. It has been declared by scientists that this incident or phenomenon is dangerous and badly threaten the plants, animals and in turn it affects humans. This report is introduced to show the facts about this phenomenon. Reasons will be reviewed as well as potential solutions will be covered.
Facts and Reasons for Acid Rain
Basically, acid rain is rain that affected greatly by atmospheric pollution which caused by the excessive amounts of sulfur and nitrogen that emitted from cars and factories. There are two forms of acid rain, first wet acidic deposition which refers to any structure of rain that moves acids from the atmosphere and place them on the Earth's surface. Dry deposition form is prevailing without rain, it pollutes element and gases by join it to the earth surface via dust and smoke. The former is less dangerous than the last form of acid rain because of rain will at the end wash pollutants into lakes, streams and rivers. There are many area around the globe have exposed to this bad phenomenon for example, the northeastern United States, southeastern Canada, and much of Europe including portions of Sweden, Norway, and Germany. Furthermore, South Asia, some places South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Southern India (Krug and Frink, 2010).
It has been declared that "In landscapes where hydrology and geochemistry do not allow complete neutralization of acid runoff, acid rain is thought to be acidifying lakes and streams, as well as mobilizing aluminum and other metals toxic to fish and plants."(Krug and Frink, 2010). Nutrients are also affected badly by the acid rain. The question that must arise in minds is how the acid rain is occur?. The omitting of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide during fossil fuel combustion is the main resource of acid rain. Those elements after releasing into the atmosphere they act in response with the water, oxygen, and other elements in the air. Accordingly, and because of the wind they might cover a very wide area across state and national borders, and sometimes over hundreds of miles. The resulted gases from the burning coal were and still the first step to discover the issue of acid rain.
The industrial revolution in the 19th century was the first big event that causes the pollution to go inside atmosphere; it was discovered by the famous chemist "Robert Angus Smith" in 1852. However, this phenomenon gained much more attention in 1970s. (Environmental protection agency, 2002). It has been approved by chemists that sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are the major causes of acid rain. For example, In the US electric power generators are responsible of releasing about two third of all sulfur dioxide and one quarter of all nitrogen oxide as it relies on burning fossil fuels like coal.
Acid rain occurs when these gases react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form various acidic compounds. Sunlight increases the rate of most of these reactions. The result is a mild solution of sulfuric acid and nitric acid.
Effects of Acid Rain
The impacts of acid rain raises over natural and man-made environments. The acid rain is spread over a wide area of water, thus the impact may appear not intensively strong but over time acids can be accumulated in the human body and the soil. The long run effect of acid rain in the human body by lowering the level of solvated hydrogen, and the soil by causing clay soils to release aluminum and magnesium further lowers the solvated hydrogen (pH) in some areas. Plants and creatures on the earth who present part of this world are strongly exposed to death and some of them for extinction if the level pH of a lake drops below 4.8 it terms of US and Canada it is estimated that around 50,000 lakes have a pH below normal. Forests also are threatened by the acid rain as it exposed to rain falls for most times due to the nature of forests. (Brimblecombe, 1987)
Trees might lose their leaves as the rain fall of them also it may cause harm their bark, and affect badly on their growth. As a result trees will be vulnerable to disease, affected badly by weather. Soil of the forest will be affected, as acid rain will not give a chance for the soil to take the required nutrients, kills microorganisms in the soil, and can sometimes cause a calcium shortage. Many famous forests around the world are witnessing damage to forests by acid rain especially in Eastern Europe; for example, 30% in Switzerland have been affected, while half of forests in Germany and Poland are predicted to be damaged by the end of 2012 (Brimblecombe, 1987).
Finally, acid rain affects certain materials and make it loss some of its functions; therefore, it can say that acid rain affect the architecture and art as it affects building and paints. Not only buildings but also cars, railroad tracks, airplanes, steel bridges, and pipes above and below ground.
Solutions
After reviewing the nature, causes and effects of acid rain; solution must be provided to show for people that there is hope to survive from this phenomenon. Different businesses, factories and individuals have to cooperate and realize the dangerous effects of acid rain. The best solution that can be provided is by decrease the dependency on fossil fuels. These are list of alternatives such as nuclear power, hydropower, wind energy, geothermal energy, and solar energy. In terms of cars exhausts cars can depend on natural gas instead of gasoline powered vehicles; in addition, they can use battery-powered cars, fuel cells, and combinations of alternative.
Some countries are following protective policies to reduce and even eliminate the acid rain effects in the environment. For example, rivers and lakes can be slightly returned back to normality by adding some chemicals to remove the bad effects of acid rain. This kind of process called lime which is a naturally-occurring basic compound. This process is used intensively in Sweden and Norway but it is expensive. This operation brings result in short run and need to be done repeatedly to keep the water from returning to its acidic condition. However this kind of solution does not solve the broader problems of changes in soil chemistry and forest health in the watershed. It might help the plants in water and the creatures in lakes or rivers but it does nothing for materials damage and address visibility reduction.
It is advisable that to reduce the resource of acid rain by reducing the emissions from power plants and automobiles. In the same vein, scientists and chemists must do the best to achieve that goal. Similarly, individuals around the world are asked to contribute directly reduce the bad effects of this issue by conserving energy. For example, reduce the dependence on personal cars and use the public transportations (environmental protection agency, 2002).
Case Study - Acid Rain in India
Due to industrialization urban air pollution represents a serious problem in India. Now there are more factories that arise in India as well as thermal power plants, open mines and quarries. Recently, rain in India become more acidic and the pH of rain in India ranges from 5.9 to 8.4, and the average is about 6.7. India seems to be much better off than the USA (4.15-6.19), Canada (4.23-5.96), Germany (4.05-4.25), Norway (4.10-4.40), and most other countries. India depends on thermal power plants; it uses coal with relatively high sulphur content which is the major source of oxides of sulphur. India at the same time one of the greatest countries in crowded traffic and very big population therefore, the emissions of nitrogen oxides from road vehicles are very high. Like many of its counterparts, India follows some solutions such as, the use of cleaner fuels, a gradual switching to renewable energy and the use of catalytic converters (Geocases, 2012).
Conclusion
Acid rain is more essential phenomenon that all the media must give attention. Acid rain is the result of the interaction between the rain in clouds and atmospheric pollution which caused by the excessive amounts of sulfur and nitrogen that produced from cars and factories. The impacts of acid rain raises over natural and man-made environments. The impact of acid rain accumulated over time in the human body and the soil; it lowers the level of solvated pH in human body, and badly affects the soil by depriving it to take the required nutrients, kills microorganisms in the soil, and can sometimes cause a calcium shortage. Decrease the dependency on fossil fuels and move towards alternatives such as nuclear power, hydropower, wind energy, geothermal energy, and solar energy is a good solution. Also, depend on natural gas, battery-powered cars and fuel cells, instead of gasoline powered vehicles.
